


Avatar!stuck

by Lunamichi



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra, Homestuck
Genre: Crossover, Homestuck Characters in Avatar World
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-04-10
Updated: 2013-11-04
Packaged: 2017-11-03 09:27:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 32,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/379879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunamichi/pseuds/Lunamichi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karkat is the Avatar. Enough said.</p><p>Tags will be updated as the story progresses</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Karkat Vantas: Freak Out. You're the Avatar.

Four nations, four elements. A world where certain people can manipulate these elements and live accordingly. These people are called benders, people who are able to manipulate earth, fire, water, and air. Only one person is able to master all these four elements and that one person is widely known as the Avatar. A being that is constantly reborn to keep peace and balance between the four nations.

But not everyone has the privilege of having these powers. In this modern world people have come to rely more on technology and such. Bending you could say, became less popular.

The sudden advancement only begun when the four nations chanced upon a smaller 5th nation that they had no clue existed before. It was strange, none of them were benders and they all had different coloured hair and eyes. Hair that shone like the sun or flared like fire. It was so strange, so different from the usual black or brown hair that was seen all over the nations. The Avatar, a female air bender, at the time welcomed the strange foreigners and allowed them to come to the main lands to learn about the rest of the world for it appeared they had been isolated all this time. There were slight problems at first with the people claiming them as demons and that there was a reason why they had been isolated on an island. But thanks to the Avatar they were shown that they were not all that different from everyone else and a few were able to become benders as well. Soon they intermingled with the rest of the people and all was well again. 

After the death of the Avatar, the people across all the nations decided to celebrate her name for all the peace she brought upon their world during the foreign confusion. In Republic City they built a large statue of her and a grand ballroom at the edge of the capitol side by side. There every five years, people from all the nations came together to meet and celebrate there for the peace and equality they had achieved over the generations. They called it The Banquet of The Dolorosa. Why she was given the name Dolorosa, not many were sure, but that was how she was known. The celebration usually lasted about two weeks in Spring once every five years.

A certain boy from the Northern Water Tribe attended this banquet twice in his young life and had made many acquaintances of sorts from all over the nations. In total there were twenty children that always stayed together during the celebrations and they all got along in a strange way. One of the boys proclaimed them all as friends. Unfortunately the water tribe boy missed his third banquet in the great capitol due to personal matters as did a few others.

And now on with the less boring part of the story.

“You have to be one with the water, move with it, flow with it, bend the stream, it’s all in the wrists,” a girl with long, fluffy curly brown hair weaved a string of water in front of her, beside her and all around. She danced with the water and it soared over her head before she returned it into the river.

A boy beside her with scruffy darker brown locks and slightly darker skin, held a ball of water between his hands and glared at it before pulling his hands apart and turning the ball into a stream. He lashed and whipped the water around before turning it back into a ball and tossing it into the river unceremoniously.

“Karkat that wasn’t elegant at all! I said to bend the water gently and move it calmly not thrash it all around!” the girl scolded.

“Feferi come on you know that’s not my style! Elegant is too fucking girly for me,” the boy snapped back.

“Being elegant has nothing to do with being girly! That’s how water is! It’s not furious movements or whatever all the time. You have to make calm movements sometimes too you know. It helps you control it better. You’re just too angry,” Feferi scolded, “You asked me to teach you because you hated the way Rose taught you and you hate being taught by the elders so deal with it and get it right or I’m sending you back to her. I’m a busy girl you know, I took the time out of my busy schedule to help you and everything.”

“Ugh come on this is so fucking dumb! I didn’t ask for any teaching! You just dragged me here against my will! Why the hell do I even have to learn it? Bending is going to go obsolete in a few years anyway.”

“That’s the problem! This amazing power shouldn’t go obsolete! Now a days it’s really hard to find any benders and that’s just so sad when in the past you could see them everywhere. You have a gift and you should cherish it and learn it for future generations. It’d be such a waste if the future didn’t have any more benders,” a beep came from her pocket, “Oh wait a sec.”

Feferi pulled out her phone and saw that she got a text.

“Fuck this is stupid. You know that your phone can die easily if you accidentally drop it during practice right? There are so many people out there who are saying bending is a hindrance to this modern day full of their technological shit. Well their technology and stuff is pretty cool but I think it’s just making everyone lazy.”

“Kay that was a pretty hypocritical statement right there Karkat. You can’t call other people lazy when you’re the one not willing to master bending,” Feferi pointed her phone at him, “And for your information, my phone has a water proof case to make sure that never happens.”

“I already know it well enough so why the hell do I have to master it? You, Eridan and Rose are good enough already so why the fuck does it has to be me too?” Karkat put his hands in his pocket and kicked some snow.

“Karkat there aren’t many benders left so the more the better alright,” Feferi pulled her phone back and examined the message, “Oh Eridan says I have to go back.”  
“Perfect, off you go then princess. We wouldn’t want you getting yet scolded again.”

Feferi frowned at her phone and grabbed Karkat’s hood as he turned to leave, “Wait right there mister, Eridan says the council wants to see you.”

“What the fuck? I didn’t do anything this time! And I already saw them for that pot incident last week.”

“I dunno, we’ll just have to go and find out won’t we,” Feferi put her phone away and dragged the unwilling Karkat towards the main house.

Rose and Eridan were waiting for the two at the front doors of the council’s court.

“Hello you two, was practice today successful?” Rose asked with a smile. She was one of the descendant of the foreigners but had some water tribe genes in her from one of the races having a mixed marriage so her hair was a somewhat dark blonde with piercing rose coloured eyes.

“As successful as ever with him attacking the practice area as usual,” Feferi greeted Rose with a hug.

“Kar.”

“Eridan.”

The two boys quickly greeted each other with glares. Eridan wore think rimmed glasses and always had on his trade make stripped scarf and blue cape. He was one of the councilmen’s sons and was infatuated with the princess for who knows how long now.

The four filed inside and kneeled respectfully onto the four cushions in the middle of the court with the council sitting in elevated benches around them. Sometimes the council house was used as an actual court room or as Karkat liked to call it, ‘the place where he is sentenced to do menial town chores as punishment for causing problems and making ruckuses’.

“Karkat, you turned sixteen last month did you not?” one of the older councilmen asked.

“Yeah,” Karkat replied quickly with crossed arms.

“We should have told you this on your birthday but we had to make sure before we told you.”

“Tell me what?” Karkat looked at them in confusion.

“You are the Avatar.”

The room went silent for exactly one minute before Karkat fell over laughing.

“Oh my god, okay these three put you up to it didn’t they. Oh man I actually have to admit. That was a good one. God wow very funny guys you win all the awards. Here look I’ll even clap for you because it was that good,” Karkat began clapping until one of the councilmen interrupted.

“This is not a joke Karkat Vantas.”

Karkat froze and looked at the other three. They were all surprised as he was, Eridan looked like he couldn’t believe it at all like him, “Alright this has to be a joke seriously it can’t be me. My water bending isn’t even that great and you all know it, so how can I be the Avatar? Where’s your fucking proof?”

“The toys you have chosen as a child are the same as the ones that each Avatar choses when they are young. You even earth bended as a child once when you were throwing a temper tantrum.”

“Uh no that was water bending. The thing that flew when I stomped was a lump of ice,” Karkat retorted.

“No, it was solid rock that was covered by a thin layer of ice and even a block of ice does not fly upward if you stomp on the ground when you are a purely a water bender.”

“We could always prove to you that you are the Avatar,” another one of the councilmen spoke.

“Oh yeah how?” Karkat would love to know.

“You haven’t had a match with Eridan for a while now I believe?” Eridan’s distinguished father spoke up.

“So what of it?” Karkat was getting annoyed now.

“Let’s all go outside and have a match between you and Eridan. After a match with him you will see that you are the Avatar.”

“How the fuck is fighting with this douchebag going to show me that I’m the Avatar?”

“Hey what the hell Kar!”

“Just come outside and you will see.”

**********************************************

Karkat stood in the middle of the large ice arena that was surrounded by a stream of water and waited. Rose and Feferi were sitting on benches at the side along with a few others who were walking by and saw something going on so they decided to stay and watch. The councilmen were on the other side talking to Eridan before the proud boy took off his cape, walked forward and took a ready stance.

The idea was really stupid to Karkat but he wasn’t complaining too much of they were allowing him to fight Eridan for the heck of it. Bending matches provided good exercise for the boy, but other than that he hated learning the technical side of it.

One of the councilmen called the match to start and Eridan started with two water whips. Karkat brought up a shield of ice and waited for the water to hit before shattering the shields and sending the broken shards at Eridan. The boy dodged a few pieces but turned the rest into water and whipped it back.

Karkat’s bending wasn’t as great as Eridan’s but he was still able to put up a good fight. He was concentrated on the match until he heard gossiping on the sidelines.

Him the Avatar? No way.

But he’s always so angry.

Leave the world to that guy and we’re all dead.

The councilmen must have made a mistake.

I feel sorry for his father, that lone man having to raise such an unruly child.

His water bending is so furious, how can he learn any of the other elements?

Actually it’s a real wonder how he was born a water bender.

“Hey Kar, eyes up front. Pay attention!” Eridan called to him as he sent icicles at the distracted boy.

“Why don’t you,” after shielding with a wall of ice, Karkat twirled around it and got into formation for a large water whip.

“All just,” the whip moved across his body but the water collapsed to the ground halfway when his right hand turned into a fist in anger.

“SHUT UP!” from his fist a burst of fire flew towards Eridan. Karkat gasped and pulled his hand back but it was too late, the fire already left him. Eridan was so surprised that he didn’t have time to even counter with any water moves so he dodged to his side. 

His pant leg caught on fire and Rose quickly subdued it with a bit of bending.

Karkat just stared ahead and fell to his knees in shock. Everyone in the audience began to chatter among themselves in surprise and a few left to go tell the rest of the town.

The councilmen just smiled to themselves, “Pack your bags mister Vantas. You leave for the fire nation the day after tomorrow.”

The men began to walk away. Karkat didn’t know why but he quickly ran ahead and stood before the gentlemen.

“Wait! Day after tomorrow? That soon? But I haven’t even mastered water bending yet!” why he was trying to convince him to let him stay, he wasn’t sure. There was no point in denying he was the Avatar after that little show. Everything just seemed too sudden for the boy.

“Yes that is true but it is probably better that you know the basics of the other elements before you get to mastering them. We think this method of teaching you is better suited for your style and personality, hopefully. Rose will accompany you on your travels so that you stay in practice,” they explained.

Rose was a water bending genius as well as a scholar. She was about a year older than him but was already proclaimed a master. Her interest lies in history as well as fortune telling. She as well as the princess also had healing capabilities. But because Rose was such a genius, it was rumoured that she was secretly learning the forbidden blood bending to further her knowledge. She also liked to play the psychiatrist in the village. In a way, he guessed, she would be a good bodyguard too.

Karkat looked down in frustration. Why was this happening to him?

“We would have sent you off tomorrow or right away but we know your attachment here so we will give you a day to say good-bye. It’s not like you will be gone forever, just for quite a while. It is important for the Avatar to know all the elements as soon as possible. It is your duty,” and with that. The elders left.

Karkat just stood there utterly confused as the crowd from earlier finally dispersed. Rose, Feferi and Eridan cautiously approached the boy once everyone else was gone.

“Jeez Kar you totally ruined my pants. Look at this! The ends are all burnt!” Eridan complained to see if he could get Karkat to snap out of it.

“Fuck you Eridan! You have shitloads of pants! Don’t go complaining to be about you menial as hell outfit crisis to me. Especially not at a time like this!” Karkat furiously snapped. Eridan took a step back.

“Are you upset?” Rose asked.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOO,” Karkat drawled out sarcastically, “I’m fucking ecstatic!”

“Why are you upset?” Rose began.

“Why? WHY!? Uh HELLO! I suddenly get called out of the blue and told that I’m some important world needing person. I am ordered to leave almost right away to start my training because it’s my duty. A fucking duty that I never asked for. Me! The person that thinks bending will go obsolete in the future has to go travel around the world and master all the elements! No signs, no warnings no anything! Just ‘hi you’re the Avatar now get the fuck out of here and go do the job that was predetermined for you as soon as you were fucking born’.”

“But Karkat you get to travel the world! I’ve always dreamed of travelling but I can’t because of the stupid princess deal,” Feferi inputted, “This is amazing, you have so many gifts that you can explore and learn!”

“I never asked for this!”

“And neither did any of the other Avatars yet they did what they had to. Learn the four elements, learn about the lands and keep the peace,” Rose explained, “Karkat this will be a very good opportunity for you. You will get to travel and visit all the lands, you can learn how different society is compared to our town here. Mastering the elements can also improve how you see the world, yourself, others and help with your little temper problem.”

“Is it a good opportunity for me or for you Miss Forced to come along and watch me like a fucking babysitter. I bet you’re the only one excited to go so you can learn more ways to annoy the shit out of me.”

“You will also be missing your high school lectures.”

“Don’t try to make it sound better Lalonde cause it won’t work. Nothing will make this sound better.”

“I think we should leave him alone,” Eridan whispered to the girls.

Feferi sighed, “I guess you’re right. You should really think this through okay Karkat?”

“Not like I have a fucking choice anyways,” the young Avatar turned and left with his back slouched and hands in his pockets.

“Don’t worry. He will come around,” Rose watched the grumpy boy leave with a knowing smile.


	2. Say Farewell

Karkat quietly opened the door to his home in hopes that his father had not come back from work yet and that he would be able to sneak up to his room.

“Karkat did you bring home any fish today?” crap the old man was home and he had forgotten to go fishing. He had done nothing but go to class and practice water bending all day, aside from learning he was the Avatar of course.

“Karkat?” his father called once more.

The boy quietly walked to the kitchen entrance and stood there. Suddenly the floor looked very interesting at that moment and he kept his gaze downwards. His left hand held onto his right arm.

“H-Hey dad. Sorry I didn’t get any fish.”

“Boy I reminded you before you went to class this morning. We won’t have any lunch for tomorrow now,” the older water tribe warrior looked through their half empty fridge.

“Sorry . . .” Karkat glanced up once as his father sighed and scratched the back of his head, “Hey Dad, can we go fishing together tomorrow then? I don’t have any class since it’s Saturday and all.”

“Us together? You haven’t wanted to go fishing with me since you were ten,” the man looked up at his boy oddly who had returned his gaze back to the floor.

“So what? If you don’t want to go then fine just fucking say so. I’m not hungry so I’ll skip dinner. I have some homework to do. I’ll go fishing after breakfast. You’re probably busy with work or whatever so good night I guess,” Karkat quickly escaped to his room as his father watched his retreating figure with an odd look.

Once in his room, Karkat flopped onto his bed with a big sigh. He had no idea how to tell his dad. He couldn’t just go up to the man and say ‘Hey dad, I’m leaving day after tomorrow for who knows how fucking long. Yup it’s cause I’m the Avatar so see ya’. After ruffling his hair in frustration, he turned over and glared at his hands that he held before him. With his palms faced up he continued to glare at them and felt anger rushing through his body.

Why the hell is it me? Someone up there is probably laughing their fucking ass off from tormenting me. I barely even want to know water bending so how am I going to learn the rest?

A small flame ignited at the tip of his right index finger and he sat up. His eyes narrowed some more as some more small flames lit up at each of his fingertips. It just came so easily. It really was a wonder how he was born a water bender instead of a fire bender.

“Karkat you really should eat something,” his father suddenly walked in unannounced with a plate of food. The man’s eyes widened when he saw the fire.

Karkat quickly waved his hand about in an attempt to put out the flames but the sudden aerial movement caused the flames to spread and catch onto his sheets. Karkat jumped off his bed in surprise and quickly dumped the bowl of water that was on his desk onto his bed ((used for late night water bending when he was bored or as a distraction from homework)). The flames didn’t have time to spread so they went out with a tiny sizzle, leaving a small black dot on his blanket. 

“What the fuck was that?” Karkat’s father stared at the burnt spot completely dumbfounded.

The new Avatar groaned and sat on the side of his bed with his elbows on his knees. He let his face fall into his hands and he went silent. His father put the plate of food on his desk and sat beside the boy.

“I didn’t think they were right . . . ” the man stated after a period of silence.

“You knew?” Karkat turned his head and peeked at the water tribe warrior from his hands.

“I guess I sort of did?” the man scratched the back of his head, “The day you threw that fucking temper tantrum when you were little and that ice block flew up, that’s when they told me and your mother. I didn’t believe them one bit but your mother did. She said you were destined for great things and stuff.”

Karkat let his forearms hang loose as he looked down, “Did she really?”

“Yeah. I didn’t say anything against her. I just let her believe what she wanted. Didn’t actually think that she and the others would be right though.” 

“Gee thanks Dad you’re so encouraging,” Karkat couldn’t help but chuckle.

“. . . So what’s going to happen now?”

“. . . I leave for the Fire Nation the day after tomorrow. They said something about learning the basics of all the elements before mastering them because it suited my personality or learning habits better or some other bullshit like that. They probably just want to kick me out of here as soon as possible.”

“Probably.”

“Again, real fucking encouraging Dad,” Karkat rolled his eyes and let out a surprise yelp when his father put him in a headlock.

“Is that any way to speak to your father you little brat?” his father raised an amused brow as he began to grind his knuckles on the boy’s head.

“Ow fuck! I give I give! Mercy! Uncle! Agh Dad fuck ow!” the boy cried as he flailed about and failed at trying to get out of his father’s strong hold.

Karkat was freed a few seconds later and he skittered to the end of his bed. His hands holding his poor head and his legs pulled up in front of him as a defensive measure against his father. The man just chuckled before reaching over. Karkat flinched but relaxed a bit when the man just decided to pat his head.

“We’ll go fishing right after breakfast and go visit your mother after lunch,” Karkat’s father got up and stretched before heading to the door, “Eat your dinner and try to do most of your homework before you leave so you let your teacher know you’re not a total fucking idiot.”

“Shut up I do what I want old man!” Karkat threw his pillow at his father and the man easily caught it before pelting it back at the boy.

“Quit crying and do your work,” the man left with a chuckle.

Karkat glared at the sheets piled on his desk over the pillow in his arms. Like hell he would do his homework when he wasn’t even going to attend classes any more. But then again he could show up his teacher if he did do them or maybe even get a little ahead . . . HAH fat chance. The smell of his father’s delicious cooking caught his attention and he slowly seated himself at his desk. He looked between his meal and his homework for a bit before digging in and grabbing one of the sheets.

Might as well do a little . . .

***************************************************

“Come on boy get up, time to go!”

Karkat peeked at his digital clock and groaned, “Too early . . .”

He turned his head to face away from the light as his father opened the windows letting in the bright sun beams reflecting off the snow. Karkat was one who loved to bundle his sheets together around himself for comfort and warmth so when his father pulled on his sheets hard, he fell out of his bed after flipping.

“Ow fuck Dad what the hell!?”

“You’re the one who wanted to go fishing with your old man so let’s go. We’ll eat on the way there.”

Karkat groggily pushed himself off the floor and yawned, “Right give me a minute.”

The man noticed the lack of profanities in the reply and watched as Karkat stood up, “I’ll be outside.”

He walked past Karkat and ruffled his bed head before heading out. The boy just mumbled before heading to the washroom. 

Karkat and his father didn’t have to fish for their food but his father preferred to work for your own food rather than just buy it at the market like everyone else. He was more traditional in that sense, plus it saved them quite a bit of money. If it was a good fishing day and they caught extra then they would sell it to the market instead. Karkat actually quite enjoyed it. It was peaceful for him and let him think on his own without anyone breathing down his back or judging him. In a few minutes he met his father outside in his winter gear and followed him to their usual fishing spot. It was a nice secluded area and sort of dangerous to walk to but it was worth it. It was alright for Karkat to go through because if anything happened he could always bend his way out of the problem while his father was a tough warrior who could travel through any harsh northern water tribe terrain.

The two walked silently together with their bags and fishing gear on their backs and ate the blubbered seal jerky that they packed along. The terrain was easy at first but soon it turned into steep icy slopes. Karkat slipped once and his father laughed at him until he stepped onto an area of thin ice and almost fell through if Karkat hadn’t frozen the water before the man could fall into it. The man found it odd when the boy didn’t make a snarky remark about his father’s screw up and just continued to their private fishing spot.

When they arrived, Karkat bended a wall of ice away which hid the boat that he always used. He silently pushed it into the water and got in. The boy looked at his father expectantly and waited. His father gave him an odd look before joining him in the boat before Karkat pushed them out towards the middle of the water. The silence began to irritate the man as Karkat silent got his fishing stuff ready.

“Something on your mind boy? You haven’t sworn at anything since I knocked you out of bed,” his father commented as he also got his fishing gear ready.

“Nothing really . . .”

“Why so quiet?”

“Nothing to say I guess.”

Karkat let out his line and sat back. His body was relaxed and he looked content. His father rarely saw him like this. They sat in the boat back to back and waited silently. It was actually quite comfortable. There was no need for words. It was just nice being in each other’s company and not yelling their heads off at each other like they usually did. An hour passed and Karkat finally got a bite. With quick maneuvers he was able to pull the fish out and flop it into their basket in one fell swoop.

“Huh you’re actually pretty good at this,” his father complimented.

“Well yeah, you passed the chore onto me so of course I would be good at it or we wouldn’t be eating,” Karkat scoffed and set his line again.

“Oh hey look a school of small fish is coming, get the net,” his father warned.

“Really?” Karkat put his line down but didn’t bother to get the big net. His father was surprised when Karkat suddenly stood up and took a stance. The boy concentrated on the water and carefully watched as the group of fish came towards their boat. He stayed silent and watched as his son swooped up a large bunch with his water bending, waved the group around him before shooting them straight into the basket and pulling the water out from the holes in the sides and putting the water back into the lake without splashing anyone.

His father blinked at the now full basket, “Amazing. You’ve gotten much better at water bending. You didn’t even splash me or flood the boat.”

Karkat rolled his eyes before sitting back down, “It’s been six years since we last went fishing together. I’ve been practicing ever since because some fucking nosy girls won’t leave me alone about it. It’s not that great. It’s just some simple movements no big deal.”

“Haha come on boy I’m complimenting you. No need to be suspicious about it. Honestly though you have improved greatly. Last time you almost sunk our boat and flipped it from panic.”

“Things change in 6 years,” Karkat looked away, slightly embarrassed.

“A lot apparently,” his father smiled and looked at his son. He had grown up into a sturdy and powerful boy yet he never took the time to see it until he was about to leave.

“Stop that,” Karkat narrowed his eyes at him.

“Stop what?” the man raised a curious brow.

“It’s weird when you smile like that geez it’s all like old man creepy.”

“What a father can’t smile when he’s proud of his son?”

“. . . You’re proud of me?”

“Is that weird?”

“A little . . . You never really said that before and you’re usually always complaining when I get into trouble and stuff.”

“Huh well I guess there are times when you are a little annoying fuck but well you’re still my son and I guess finally looking at you now I see you’re not so much of a fucking brat as I thought you were.”

“And you’re still my crabby asshole of a stubborn dad.”

“Hey what did I say about speaking to your elders this way,” Karkat’s father made an attempt at another playful grab but Karkat jumped out of the boat and stood on a block of ice he quickly made for himself.

“Come and get my you old crab,” Karkat childishly stuck his tongue out at him.

“Challenging a veteran warrior will be your down fall boy!” the man stood up and prepared to jump but stopped with wide eyes, “Karkat watch out behind you!”

Karkat frowned and turned around to find a gigantic sea squid with its arms up and above the water, “What the hell these things don’t grow to be this big!”

The creature swung its arm down towards Karkat and he jumped back into the boat once the arm smashed through the ice block. The boat shook with the waves it created and almost toppled over.

“Why is it attacking us? We’ve been fishing here for all my life right? How come I’ve never seen this thing before!?” Karkat cried as he pushed the waves so that their boat could get away from the large creature.

“I don’t know but we should catch it!” the man exclaimed in excitement as he got a harpoon ready.

“Dad that thing is fucking huge! Don’t tell me you think throwing a measly stick at it will actually do anything let alone pierce it!”

“You underestimate your old man,” he stood up and got ready to throw.

“Dad don’t be stupid!”

“Just keep the boat steady!”

“Dad don’t do it!”

“Where’s your adventurer’s spirit?”

“Underneath my ‘I want to fucking live’ spirit!”

The giant squid brought its arm down once more, this time aiming at their boat. Karkat’s father took the chance to throw the harpoon, it went straight through the arm but it still came hurtling towards their boat. The next thing the older water tribe man saw was a large mass of water engulfing the giant creature and its movements froze right before it hit them. The water all around them froze and a thick layer of ice soon stopped the squid completely and left it like a statue. The man turned around to find Karkat missing. He heard a groan at the end of the boat and when he peeked over the side he saw Karkat lying on the ice with a heavy breath.

“Fuck that almost gave me a heart attack!” Karkat yelled in his father’s face when he sat up, “You are crazy!”

The man just laughed in his face, “You really are the Avatar.”

“How does freezing a giant fucking monster animal make you confirm I’m the Avatar? Rose or Feferi heck even Eridan could have done the same thing, probably even better.”

A cracking sound brought the attention of the males back to the giant squid. The strong creature was trying to fight its way out and it’s enclosure began to crack.  
“Hey think you can haul that thing over to the mar-”

“WE ARE NOT GOING TO TAKE THAT FUCKING THING WITH US!” Karkat cried before grabbing his gear and stuffing it in his bag. He jumped back into the boat and unfroze it from the block connected to the squid before clearing a path for them to get back.

“Come now Karkat, don’t you know how much we could get for that giant fucker?”

“Ugh now I know why I stopped fishing with you. The day never ends.”

“Karkat I demand you turn this fucking boat around and get that squid right now.”

“NO!” more cracking alerted Karkat of the soon to be free squid, “You can go get it by yourself after I leave. But don’t go alone because I know you’re going to get yourself killed if you do you moronic unaware old man.”

“Hah if you’re worried then it’s gone to waste boy. The one you should be worrying about is yourself. How you’ll ever learn all those elements is a wonder.”

“Yeah you’re not the only one who thinks that okay . . .” Karkat looked back to see the squid gone. Hopefully it had retreated and gone back to the deep ocean so that his father wouldn’t end up almost dying from trying to capture it.

“We have a lot of extra fish to sell in the market today,” Karkat examined the basket when he took it out of the boat.

“I bet that squid would have set me for the next few years.”

Karkat glared at his father before pushing the boat into an ice cave. He didn’t close it this time so his father could take it while he was gone. Karkat ignored the pesters of his father wanting to go back and getting the squid as they walked back. Karkat threatened to freeze his father right on the spot if he continued and then ran away when the man began to chase him when he actually tried to do it. His father easily got out of the frozen foot trap by smashing it with his club that Karkat didn’t even realize he brought with him and the chase began. It broke out into a snow ball chase fight soon after and they continued like that all the way to the market.

Both were keeled over laughing and trying to regain their breath. The passerby looked at them oddly and walked faster when they were near them.

“You look like you’re enjoying your last day here,” a familiar knowing voice stated. 

Karkat looked up to see Rose smiling at him. Standing behind her and holding on to her robe were a bunch of kids that looked a little afraid of him.

“What’s with the kids?” Karkat asked once he recomposed himself and stood straight.

“That is no way to greet a lady,” Karkat’s father elbowed him, “Good day to you Miss Rose.”

“Good day to you Mr. Vantas. These children wished to spend the day with me since I am leaving tomorrow with your son. They’re from my little scholars class that I teach every Saturday.”

“Little scholars? What kind of kid wants to learn history shi-” Rose raised an eyebrow at his almost curse and he corrected himself, “ahem stuff from you?”

“Not all children run amuck like how you did. Some actually wish to learn about their culture and of the world.”

“Right whatever, I got fish to sell.”

“Wait!” one of the kids called. When Karkat turned around the little girl hid behind Rose a little more.

“What?” Karkat narrowed his eyes at the kids and they all bunched up together behind Rose.

“Miss Rose are you sure he’s the Avatar?” a little boy asked.

“Haha looks like the kiddies are curious. I’ll go sell the fish Karkat you can spend some time with them and we’ll go visit your mother afterwards alright,” Mr. Vantas ruffled his son’s head before heading off to bargain for his extra fish. 

“Yes he is the Avatar even if he is a grumpy little crab, but don’t worry he won’t bite or snap at you if I’m here,” Rose comforted the children.

“If you and these kids are just going to make fun of me then I’m going to go with my Dad,” Karkat turned to leave again and turned around when two kids tugged on his coat.

“I wanna see fire bending! The adults said they saw you firebend!” a boy boldly demanded.

“Unless you kids want to get caught on fire I suggest you leave me alone,” Karkat pulled his coat away from them.

“Come now Karkat. If you can’t do it then all you have to do is say so.”

“Fu- Shut up Lalonde.”

“Let’s go children, you’ll only waste your time with him.”

“So what he’s a lair then?”

“I will set you on fire little brat,” Karkat took off his right glove, put it in a fist and opened it before him. A flame appeared and the two kids near him squealed. In fear or delight, he couldn’t tell. They quickly scampered to the safety of Rose as the others looked on with wide curious and surprised eyes.

“Whoa it appeared out of nowhere!”

“Can you do the other hand too?”

“Show us more show us more!”

“It appears to come natural to you,” Rose commented.

Karkat closed his fist, making the flame disappear, and stared at his fist, “I guess it does.”

“Aw it’s gone. Do it again do it again!” the kids began to crowd around him.

“Whoa back up. It’s dangerous and I don’t really know how to control it,” Karkat put his glove back on and they all pouted or whined.

“So does that mean you’ll show us when you can control it?” one kid stated and all the rest agreed.

“Oh yes please promise us!”

“That might be a really long time you know. I still have to learn all the other elements,” Karkat frowned at them. From the corner of his eyes he could see Rose smiling.

“Then that means you can show us all of the bending styles! That’s going to be so cool!”

“Yeah promise us! Promise you’ll come back and show us all your awesome moves!”

“What, why should I promise a bunch of brats like you?” Karkat glared at Rose who appeared to be enjoying this.

“Come on Avatar Karkat!”

“Fine! God just don’t call me that!” he snapped. A few of them cheered.

“Why you’re the Avatar aren’t you? Then that makes you Avatar Karkat,” a girl innocently pointed out.

“Now all he has to do is live up to it,” Eridan appeared.

“Great what brings you here oh great Ampora,” Karkat drawled.

“Fef says she wants to see you oh great Avatar Kar,” Eridan said dramatically making a few of the kids giggle.

“The princess calls,” Karkat sighed, “Rose tell my Dad I’ll meet up with him later. He knows where.”

“Alright then have a nice day. Be sure you’re prepared for tomorrow,” Rose waved as the two boys left.

“Bye Avatar Karkat!”

“Remember you promised!”

“Yeah yeah,” Karkat waved back and followed Eridan.

The two walked to the palace and instead of going in, Eridan led Karkat to the back.

“Where we going?”

“Fef says she wanted to show you somethin’,” was all he said before they soon came upon Feferi standing beside I small door in the wall of ice that stood tall behind the palace.

“Yay you’re here!” Feferi ran up to him and immediately grabbed Karkat’s hands. She pulled him towards the door while Eridan waited outside to keep watch, “There’s something I have to show you.”

“What?” Karkat asked confused.

“The Spirit Oasis.”


	3. To The Fire Nation

“Spirit what?”

“Spirit Oasis,” Feferi repeated herself as she crawled through the entrance with Karkat following her.

On the other side the princess took off her jacket and gloves and placed it near the entrance before skipping forward to a bridge. It was strangely warm in there so Karkat took off his coat as well. With confusion he walked over to the princess when she waved him over.

“What is this place? Why is it so warm?” he looked around at the lush green grass and flowers. How a place like this could even exist in the North Pole was a great wonder. The area was enclosed by walls of ice and the sound of the water stream was calming.

“Are you seriously going to make me say it again? Here I’ll say it slowly. It’s the Spir-it O-ay-sis,” she said each syllable separately as she poked Karkat’s forehead.  
The boy quickly backed up and placed his hands over the now reddening spot, “Fuck ow, I meant why haven’t I heard of this place before and how long has it been here?”

Feferi walked over to the pond that was at the center of the area, “It’s always been here. Ever since the capitol was made I guess. This is the most spiritual place in the North Pole. Also this place is restricted area.”

“Then why the fuck are we here?”

“Restricted to everyone but the main family and the most spiritual person on the planet,” Feferi giggled and sat down in front of the pond.

It took Karkat a moment to realise that the most spiritual person on the planet was the Avatar which was supposed to be him, “Oh.”

Feferi rolled her eyes and patted the ground beside here, “Slow poke. Come over here.”

Karkat sat down beside her cross legged and looked that the pond in front of him. Inside it was a single black koi fish swimming in circles, “So why’d you bring me here?”

“To talk a little about Avatar history.”

“Oh come on Rose is already going to give me a shitload of that during my trip.”

“At least let me tell you some North Water tribe history and then I’ll tell her she won’t have to go over it with you later.”

“Fine but hurry it up, I have to meet my dad later,” Karkat crossed his arms in annoyance.

“Oh you’re seeing your mom right?”

“Yeah, so get on with it.”

“See the fish there?” Feferi pointed to the black koi fish. It began to swim in the other direction but still in a circle.

“Yeah.”

“It’s apparently the Ocean Spirit, La. A long time ago it came to the mortal world to reside here with the Moon Spirit Tui.”

“What the hell would spirits be doing here in the mortal world? They could die if they’re here right?” Karkat narrowed his eyes at the pond, “Wait there’s only one fish here.”

“Because a long time ago Tui was killed . . .”

She was glad when Karkat decided to stay silent to listen, “There was a century where the Avatar had disappeared once. It was the air born avatar before the Dolorosa. He was found frozen in an ice burg during the time when the fire nation was trying to control all the nations.” 

Karkat recalled his history lessons about the Sozin and Ozai era when the Fire Nation was bent on ruling the world.

“He at the time was the last air nomad on earth. Through his travels to learn the elements he of course eventually came here and that was when the fire nation decided to attack. The general of the fleet knew about the spirits and came to kill he moon spirit, knowing it was a source of power for the water benders. La and the Avatar formed together to attack the fire nation fleet and they left.”

“Wait if the moon spirit died then how we are all still able to water bend?” Feferi smiled at Karkat’s curiosity.

“The princess at the time had been given life from the moon spirit when she was a baby and then she returned that life to the spirits. Now she and the moon spirit are one. Though the fish is gone, they still live on.”

“Why didn’t we ever learn this in class? Are you sure this isn’t just some legend?” Karkat frowned at the outrageous tale.

“Because it’s not just some legend. It actually happened! It’s just a story passed down to the royal family though so that might be why. This place is the most connected to the spiritual world. Why don’t you try to meditate and see if you can go through?”

“It’s not going to work. I haven’t had any sort of spiritual training or any of that shit.”

“Just shut up and try. Geez you’re so complicated.”

“Fine,” Karkat just rolled his eyes before closing his eyes. Thanks to the nice climate it was quite easy to get into a relaxed state. His breathing was calm and so was the world around him. He actually felt at peace, which was a rare thing for him. 

Instead of going to the spirit world or whatever, he felt a presence suddenly appear. Like a third person just suddenly appeared beside them. He slowly peeked to the side to see Feferi meditating as well and looked around to see no one else. He had thought Eridan had come in or something but apparently not. The feeling of them not being alone never left him though. 

His eyes widened once he looked at Feferi again. A pale see through hand was seen resting on her shoulder. Looking up he could see it belonged to a girl with large mass of hair just like Feferi’s. He could see right through her. Her figure just kind of floated behind the princess as if she was always there. She seemed to realize that Karkat was looking at her so she turned her head eerily slow and he saw that she had no eyes. There was just white empty space. He jumped back with a freaked out cry.

“Wha what? What happened? Did you see something scary in the spirit world?” the startled princess asked.

Karkat furiously rubbed his eyes before looking at the princess again. She looked at him with worry. He whipped his head around and saw that the ghostly figure was gone. The third presence he had felt earlier disappeared.

“Karkat?”

“N-nothing, I didn’t see anything. It didn’t work. I’m going to see my dad now,” Karkat said quickly as he got up and headed to the exit. If being the Avatar consisted of seeing dead people then he would avoid that section entirely.

“What did you see?” Feferi asked curiously as she followed.

“I said nothing alright just drop it!”

“Wait! At least take some flowers with you. For your mom,” Karkat turned to get a bundle of freshly picked flowers shoved into his face. He pushed them away and spit out a petal before holding them. Feferi gave him a big smile.

“ . . . Thanks.”

“No problem, don’t want to keep your dad and mom waiting now.”

The two put their coats back on and left oasis. As soon as Karkat got out, Eridan grabbed his collar.

“Kar. If you ever meet Sol, punch him in the face for me,” the nobleman’s child ordered with fury. Karkat could even see his eye twitch with irritation.

“I make no promises,” Karkat raised his arms in surrender and Eridan let him go.

“Cod that annoyin’ little ugh I don’t even know what nation he’s from so I can’t make fun of him that way!”

“Doesn’t he live in the earth nation?” Karkat fixed his coat that Eridan scrunched up.

“But he wasn’t born there and he won’t tell us where he’s actually from. When you find out tell me so I can properly insult him back. That annoyin’ pompous little argh!” Eridan fumed to himself and glared at his phone which most likely meant that their long distance friend Sollux had just sent him an insulting text.

Feferi giggled, “Oh that’s right, you’ll get to meet everyone from your travels. Try to see if you can meet with everyone since you missed the last banquet and tell us how they’re doing!”

“You can just text them or e-mail them. Why do I have to check up on them?”

“Well I would if I could but Aradia hasn’t replied to any of my messages since the last banquet and didn’t you suddenly lose touch with Gamzee too? You should try to find them since no one knows what happened to them. Oh and I heard Vriska lost contact with pretty much everybody too.”

“Right, John was complaining about that to me a while back,” the group usually kept in contact with a few of the kids they met up with from the banquet but some of them had stopped responding for no apparent reason, “Well I’ll try and see, I’ll be busy doing Avatar training probably every fucking day so I don’t know.”

“At least you’ll say you’ll try, that’s good enough for me!”

“Right whatever I gotta go,” Karkat waved and left with his bundle of flowers.

**********************************************************

The new Avatar found his father already sitting in front of the stone slab. Karkat placed the flowers on the ground in front of the nicely decorated slab and then sat down beside him with his knees pulled up to his chest.

“Nice flowers. Where’d you get ‘em.”

“Feferi brought me to the Spirit Oasis.”

“Ah . . .They suit your mother.”

“Yeah they do.”

The two water tribe citizens sat there in silence for a while just staring at the gravestone. Karkat’s mother had been a hearty and healthy woman until a few years ago when they discovered she had cancer. She lived as long as she could and was always under the treatment of the healers like Rose. Sometimes Feferi came and tried to help as well but alas her time came. She passed away a two months before the Banquet of The Dolorosa and that was why Karkat didn’t go that year.

“Your mother would have been so proud of you,” Karkat felt a hand on his head.

“Really? It always seemed like . . . I was a burden to you guys . . .”

The man laughed and pulled Karkat into a headlock again but this time his hold was loose, “You’re not a burden when you’re growing up to be a fine man and bender that can get food to feed his family.”

Karkat stayed silent. His father let go of him and sighed, “Your mother was so bright and optimistic. If she was still here she would go up to all those other councilmen that didn’t believe you were the Avatar and shout to their faces ‘I told ya so!’ Woman had the best intuition.”

Karkat chuckled, “Yeah she would have said that like she always said to you when you were wrong.”

“I’ve lost count how many times she said that to me.”

“Too many times. Same with me. Heh even during her last few moments . . . she lectured me . . .” his father let him go and Karkat buried his face into his knees.

“That’s what a good mother does. Teaches them to grow up to be wonderful people. It’s been hard without her.”

“. . . you . . .” Karkat’s voice was muffled.

“Hm what’s that boy? Speak up.”

“And now . . . I have to leave you too,” he repeated softly.

“Worried about your old man? Didn’t I tell you this morning there’s nothing to worry about? I’m not that old first of all and I’m strong so don’t worry about it,” his father ruffled his hair. They both knew that’s not what he meant but they didn’t dwell on it much farther.

The smell of food made Karkat look up to see a freshly cooked sea crab on a stick held in front of him. He quietly took it and stared at it before looking at his dad.

“I got a bonus for selling extra today. That grumpy head healer was helping out today and gave them to me and told me to make sure to give some to you and that it wasn’t all for me.”

“Really? Her? Rose’s and Feferi’s teacher?” Karkat narrowed his eyes at the food. He always thought that woman hated his guts since he always cause problems around her work area. Maybe she put something funny in it.

“Just eat up boy. It’s a farewell gift. Even if you are a pain, not everyone is heartless.”

Karkat glared at the food a little while longer before taking a tentative bite.

Then he finished it because it was so god damn good. His father just laughed at him as they sat there in peace.

******************************************************

“Karkat I believe I told you yesterday after you visited your mother that we had to leave early,” Rose looked at the out of breath boy before her at the dock.

“Fuck . . . my dad just kept pestering me . . . . about tons of shit alright. I’m not even . . . that late,” Karkat coughed a bit before straightening. He looked at the government looking people standing behind Rose, “Who the fuck are they?”

“White Lotus sentinels. They are to be our escorts during our journey. White Lotus is the organization that keeps the peace between the four nations and is tasked at taking care of the Avatar,” Rose explained.

Karkat glared at the guard like people, “So they’re watchdogs great.”

Rose sighed as Feferi ran up to them with Eridan. She immediately hugged the water bending genius before hugging Karkat, “Bye guys! Keep in touch! We’re going to miss you.”

“Yeah I’m totally going to miss beatin’ Kar in matches,” Eridan nodded to himself.

“Like how you beat me the other day?” Karkat smirked and mocked, “Eep fire I can’t counter cause it’s so scary weh.”

“That was fuckin’ unfair and you know it. It surprised all of us, freakin’ fire comin’ out a nowhere.”

“Weh I’m Eridan and I’m afraid of fire.”

“Alright that’s it,” Eridan raised his arms as snow was raised around him and turned into water.”

“Eridan now is not the time,” Feferi scolded. Eridan roughly dropped the water and turned to the side with a pout.

Feferi sighed at him before turning to Karkat with a smile, “I hope you have fun on your trip.”

“With Rose tagging along I think that will be impossible. Ack!” Karkat put his hand on his head where he felt a sudden hit and turned around to see a small ball of water floating in her hand that she had probably used to smack him in the back of the head.

Feferi giggled, “Be nice to each other you two. Try not to bite each other’s heads off.”

“Oh I will try my best my dear but I can’t make any promises for the anger management need Avatar,” Rose said wistfully making Feferi giggle some more. Karkat rolled his eyes at them.

“Whatever let’s go, so good bye and stuff and yeah send a message if you ever want to talk and stuff,” a large hand ruffled his head. When Karkat looked up he saw his father smiling at him.

“Stay safe Karkat. Listen well to miss Lalonde and your other teachers or else you’ll never master the elements before you can return home.”

“We will try to visit when we can,” Rose smiled at his father.

“That’d be nice since it will probably take years for this little bugger to even master one element.”

“Yes thank you for pointing out my learning disabilities,” Karkat said flatly.

“It is time to go,” one of the White Lotus sentinels declared before boarding the boat with the others.

“Well it is time we depart,” Rose waved and was a bit startled when Feferi suddenly ran up to hug her again.

“I’m going to miss you guys. It’s going to be weird without you two here.”

“We’ll miss you too,” Rose hugged her back and boarded the ship.

Feferi hugged Karkat again and he awkwardly patted her on the back. He shook hands with Eridan despite the little spat earlier and then looked at his dad. He scratched the back of his head from being unsure of what to do. The man rolled his eyes and then just pulled Karkat into a big hug. The hug was short lived because it turned into a headlock and another noogie.

“Damnit you old man!” Karkat yelled as he jumped back, “Just you wait! I’m going to come back and show you that I can learn all the elements. I may not master all of them in a year but I will show you! In one year I will be a pretty decent bender in all the elements!”

“I look forward to it you brat,” his father called after him as the boy boarded the ship.

The two water benders watched the waving citizens as the boat left the port towards the vast sea.

“That’s quite the bet you made with your father. Are you sure that will be possible for you?”

“Watch me. Hey that air bender before the Dolorosa learned all the elements in like a year too right? So I can too.”

“So you do pay attention in class.”

“Whatever just you wait.”

“Right, whatever you say oh great Avatar,” Rose smiled, “In the meantime, when we’re not practicing I’ll be teaching you on the subjects that you will be missing while away from classes.”

“Fuck why am I not surprised.”

*******************************************************

Day one on the ship was boring for the most part with Rose lecturing him and eating. The only interesting part was the water bending practice where he got his ass handed to him by Rose and had all the onlookers (ship crew and White Lotus sentinels) laughing at him. It was going to be a long and treacherous trip for him. Especially with the fact that the Fire Nation was quite far from the North Pole. 

And this unfortunately continued for the rest of the week.

On the last day of the week, Karkat escaped his daily lecture with Rose and hid at the back of the ship. He hung his arms over the rail and looked out at the vast ocean.

“Fuck this is so dumb,” the Avatar sighed and rolled over so that his head was hanging off the rail too and he was looking at the horizon upside down. He began to think if he really could learn all the elements in a year. Quite the bet indeed. If he went back after a year then he would probably return to everyone laughing at him knowing that he couldn’t do it.

“Why’d I ever say that,” he groaned to himself, “Just kill me now to save me the embarrassment!”

The sound of a firing canon rang through the air before the ship suddenly shook after a sound of impact was made. 

“FUCK I WAS KIDDING!” he shouted instantly as he stood somewhat up right and clung onto the railing.

Everyone on the ship began to run about as an alarm rang through the air. On the first day of the trip he received a briefing with Rose in case of emergencies and that was the alarm of an attack. Karkat looked back at the ocean and saw nothing so he ran to the front. There he found Rose looking through a telescope pointed at the ship coming towards them at great speed. They were pretty far too so how they hit them was beyond him.

“Pirates,” a White Lotus sentry hissed.

Rose handed the telescope to let Karkat see. He looked through and saw that it was a fire nation type boat made of metal. Perched at its highest point was a large blue flag with a picture of a black spider on it.

“I was afraid of this but we’re not even in fire nation waters yet so what would she be doing here? I thought pirates stayed in the waters in which they proclaimed their own,” Rose said to herself with crossed arms.

“Wait what?” Karkat put the telescope down and looked at Rose as the rest of the crew members prepared for the encounter.

“It’s the Spider Lilies.”


	4. The Second Bet

“What kind of pirate group calls themselves the Spider Lilies? Sounds fucking girly to me.”

“That’s because the captain is a girl.”

“Oh . . .” Karkat looked at the intimidating fire nation pirate ship that was speeding towards them. His phone went off indicating a message.

_hey frozen fi2h prince told me that you’re travelling the world for 2ome rea2on but won’t tell me why_

_NOT A GOOD TIME. GETTING ATTACKED BY PIRATES, I’LL TELL YOU LATER._

_pirate2 what? 2o you’re 2eriou2ly travelling the world right now? why?_

_WHAT PART OF ‘GETTING ATTACKED’ AND ‘I’LL TELL YOU LATER’ DON’T YOU UNDERSTAND?_

The water bender put his phone away and ignored the next notification as another canon was fired. The projectile would have hit them if Rose had not bent the water to push their boat to the side as much as possible. The canon just ended up scraping the side of their boat along with making many people fall over from the sudden movement. A third fired and it was aimed at the middle of the ship. Moving the boat wouldn’t help so Rose brought up a large body of water and streamed it upwards to the canon’s trajectory while freezing it. The canon was gently rolled to the side from following the water’s frozen trail and landed in the water. The sentries and crew stared at Rose in amazement as she put the water back into the ocean.

The pirate’s ship soon zoomed in until they were beside their ship and a bunch of the pirates jumped over to attack. The first thing the Avatar noticed was that all the pirates were teenagers. The simple crew members went to go hide as the sentries fought the bandits. Karkat saw that a few of them were in a perfect row so he pulled a large stream of water from the right side of the boat, hit the row of pirates and knocked them over the left side. Lucky for them, all of the pirates were non-benders so it was easy for the sentries to take care of.

Well it was until an extremely skilled fire bender jumped over and began knocking the sentries overboard. Karkat decided to confront the female fire bender, he whipped water towards her and the girl easily dodged while laughing. A playful glint from her eyes shone from behind her glasses as she easily approached Karkat and he was found on his ass seconds later from barely dodging a flaming punch. The fire bender jumped up and kicked downwards towards Karkat with fire flaring down towards him. The water stream that he brought up as a shield quickly evaporated before he could turn it to ice. A very thick ice shield rose around him and only half of it was melted through. Both him and the fire bender looked to their right to find Rose in a ready position. The pirate grinned and headed straight for Rose with a new passion. The battle was intense yet beautiful with the two elements clashing as the two danced around each other. The two came to a standstill when the fire bender’s kick was blocked yet again with Rose’s arms up. The ice armlets that she had made all melted.

“Well don’t you look familiar,” the pirate stated as she backed away and stood proudly with arms crossed. She raised her arm and the rest of the pirate crew stopped fighting.

“Don’t remember yet Captain of the Spider Lilies? Must have been because you missed the last banquet,” Rose stated.

Vriska’s brows furrowed for a minute before a grin appeared, “No way, it’s prissy Lalonde!”

Rose stood casually and sighed, “It’s nice to see you too Serket.”

“Whoa whoa whoa, hold up you know a pirate?” Karkat asked utterly confused as he stood up. This girl who was probably his age was the pirate captain?

“Yes and so do you.”

Vriska looked over to Karkat and walked over with a raised brow. She circled him before inspecting him closely. Karkat got annoyed and lashed some water at her. She quickly jumped back with a smile of realization.

“Crabby Karkles!”

The annoying nickname hit him straight on and an image of a young girl wearing glasses that loved to bully the others appeared in his mind, “Vriska?”

“Haha no way! What are you two doing here!” Vriska put an arm over Rose’s shoulder while everyone else looked at them oddly.

“Travelling of course. I had hoped we wouldn’t run into you,” Rose explained.

“Aw why not prissy? Don’t like me that much?” Vriska motioned towards the White Lotus sentries, “What’s with the stiffs?”

“Protection of course.”

“From what, me?”

“If only,” Rose shrugged off Vriska’s arm.

“Aren’t these guys part of that Avatar protection group thingy,” Vriska’s eyes widened when she looked back at Rose, “No way, don’t tell me you’re the Avatar.”

Rose smirked before giving Karkat a quick glance, “Would you like to find out?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Vriska stated as she stepped back and cracked her knuckles, “Everyone just watch alright. This is a one on one ladies match.”

“Ugh there goes the captain again. When she finds an interesting opponent nothing can stop her,” one of the crew mates lowered their weapon and complained.

“It’s alright. They won’t bother us after this match,” Rose tried to reassure the sentries.

“Hey now who said that? I came over here on full intentions of robbing this ship now ya know.”

“Well that’s if you can beat me,” Rose took a ready stance.

“It’s a deal,” Vriska’s grin widened and she took the first attack.

Rose easily countered and had water surround her arms to use them as whips. All the blasts of fire Vriska sent at her were quickly put out. The match looked more ferocious when the pirate captain moved closer and turned the battle into close combat. Limbs barely missed each other as the girls attacked. That damn smile never leaving the pirate’s face.

“Come on prissy, show me your Avatar moves. Bend some fire or air! Show me!” Vriska taunted as her attacks became more powerful. It was amazing how Rose could keep up with her.

Neither girls would back down, they were both equally matched and after a while both were beginning to tire out. Rose kept glancing at Karkat every now and then and the boy had no idea why. He was worried that if she kept getting distracted then Vriska might land a deadly hit. What was Rose playing at anyways, pretending to be the Avatar? 

Vriska noticed how Rose kept glancing at Karkat and used that to her advantage. She turned and blasted some fire towards the defenseless boy and Rose quickly sent water around to stop it. After distracting Rose, Vriska took the chance to punch Rose in the stomach and the scholar doubled over.

“Hey that’s playing dirty!” Karkat lashed some water at the pirate who jumped away with a laugh.

“Oh what Karkles wants a turn now? Even after getting your ass handed to you before?” Vriska quickly ran up to Karkat and kicked him in the chest. He stumbled backwards a bit but stayed standing up.

“Huh you managed to stay standing, kudos to that but that won’t help you if we’re playing with fire!” Vriska began twirling and making some round house kicks towards the boy, fire flaring from her feet. He tried his best to douse it with water as her attacks continued to bombard him. One attack caused him to jump back quite a bit and that’s when he decided that he had enough of this girl’s taunting. He attempted to do the same stance he did when he had a match with Eridan and with the turn of his body he made a fist. 

Nothing happened.

“Haha what are you trying to do Karkles?” Vriska zoomed in close, startling Karkat, and making him fall backwards. She threw her head back and laughed, “I didn’t even do anything that time and you’re on your ass again!”

“Shut up!” with an outstretched palm he lashed his right arm towards her as if attempting to swat her away. A large wave of flames appeared and flew towards her. She quickly cut through the middle even though she was surprised and looked at the out of breath Avatar with shock.

“You? It’s you? Mister Crabby is the one that’s supposed to keep the peace in this world?” the pirate broke out into hysterical laughter, “Wow this world is practically doomed then!”  
“Wow you’re still the same bitch as ever,” Karkat grumbled as he stood up. He looked over to Rose who was surrounded by the sentries.

“Hm you look like such an amateur though,” Vriska tapped her chin before an idea hit her, “Okay how about this. I don’t rob you now and let you go and learn fire bending properly, which is probably what you were going to do, and then the next time we meet we’ll have a proper match mister Avatar.” 

“Fine then it’s a fucking bet.”

“Better yet, go learn the rest of them. You’ll need aaaaaaaall the elements if you want to beat me or else next time not only will I be robbing your ship but I will sink it too. Maybe take a few of the crew. I’m always looking for deck swabbers and people are pretty high cost on the market too.”

“Fine! But if I win you have to disband your stupid pirate group and turn yourself in to the authorities!”

“Hah you sound pretty confident that you’ll beat me but alright, it’s a bet,” the pirate gave him a playful smirk.

“What the fuck happened to you. I knew you were terrible but not this bad. If I remember right you were even supposed to join some sort of justice thing with Terezi.”

The fire bender’s eyes narrowed upon hearing the name, “Well you remembered wrong. Don’t provoke me or I will sink your ship right here and now.”

Karkat stayed silent but glared at her anyways. Her smirk soon returned before she waved her crew to leave, “Until next time then Avatar! At least try to impress me when we meet again.”

The pirates all sneered at them before jumping back to their ship. Vriska stood at the back of her ship as it departed and she shouted out to them, “Remember that the Spider Lilies are not one to mess with! See you soon prissy and crabby!” 

“Fucking spidery assed UGH. She’s worse than I remember!” Karkat let out a little rage fest before going over to Rose, “Hey you okay?”

“With a little rest I’ll be fine. She packed quite the punch but nothing is broken. Being a barbarian has done wonders to her physical strength.”

“That was a dirty move.”

“She’s a pirate.”

“Why the hell did you keep looking at me anyways? You practically gave her that opportunity to trick you like that,” Karkat frowned. He let Rose use him as support to get up. The sentries left Rose to Karkat as they got the ship back in order to continue their journey.

“I was wondering if you would do anything. I feigned as the Avatar after all. I expected you to say something at least. But alas my judgement was wrong for once.”

“Well that was stupid of you.”

“Yes I’m the stupid one. Thank you for clearing that up all wise and knowing Avatar. Let’s not save the girl that is fighting the pirate and just stand there as a bystander and do nothing about it.”

“Alright alright I get it god,” Karkat complained until Rose winced and held her stomach, “I should’ve helped you . . . sorry.”

“I distracted myself, there is nothing to be sorry about. But if it makes you feel better then you can make it up to me by attending your lessons that you were trying to hide from today. Bending practice appears to have been already covered for the day thanks to Vriska.”

Karkat sighed as he help Rose to a cabin in the ship, “Well it definitely made today more interesting. Back to the boring as fuck days now I guess.”

“If you actually paid attention to your lessons then it wouldn’t be all that boring. History can be quite interesting you know and it is good to know the history of the previous Avatars.”

“I know enough.”

“Alright then you can tell me the names of the Avatars starting from the one that reappeared after a century of there being no Avatar.”

“Psh that’s easy. Aang is the one that reappeared, Korra after him . . . . .”

“See you only know the popular ones. So between Korra and the Dolorosa you have no idea do you.”

“Sh-shut up,” they reached their lesson room and Karkat sat her down before sitting across from her, “Hey before we start, mind telling me how the fuck Vriska became a pirate? Wasn’t she supposed to be a normal fire nation city girl? Well as normal as a bitch can get. I thought she was close friends with Terezi and together they were going to join the military or something.”

“Her mother was a pirate that left her behind to do what pirates do. Yes she was good friends with Terezi but something happened. Someone asked her at the last banquet but she didn’t tell anyone. She avoided the subject entirely,” Rose began to look through the papers in front of her to sort the lesson, “Obviously something happened between the two and then Vriska decided to go and create a band of her own to see if she could find her mother.”

“Huh that explained why she glared at me when I said Terezi’s name. I’ll go get you some water,” Karkat got up and left when he noticed Rose kept clearing her throat a little too much. Out in the hall he remembered about his phone and read the text from Sollux.

_man iit’d be hiilariiou2 iif iit wa2 VK attackiing you_

_IF VK IS VRISKA THEN YES LAUGH IT UP. WE GOT ATTACKED BY HER. THANKS FOR YOUR CONCERN FUCKASS._

_whoa 2eriiou2ly? Ii wa2 ju2t kiiddiing_

_WELL YEAH SHE ATTACKED US OKAY_

_and your 2hiip ha2n’t 2unk yet? what happened?_

_I MADE A BET WITH HER THAT IF I BEAT HER IN A MATCH THE NEXT TIME WE MEET SHE HAS TO DISBAND HER STUPID SPIDER LILIES AND TURN HERSELF IN. IF I LOSE THEN SHE SINKS MY SHIP, KIDNAPS SOME CREW AND PROABABLY WILL ATTACK MY HOME TOWN._

_wow 2he’2 pretty 2trong you know you thiink you can beat her after you’re done wiith your ob2cure a2 hell iinternatiional 2tudiie2?_

_IS THAT WHAT ERIDAN CALLED IT_

_yeah am ii wrong?_

_NO YOU’RE RIGHT THAT’S WHAT I’M DOING. INTERNATIONAL STUDIES. SO WHEN I FIND YOU I’M KICKING YOUR ASS._

_diid ED a2k you two do that?_

_YES BUT I’M KICKING YOUR ASS OUT OF MY OWN VOILITION_

_ooooo KK know2 how two u2e fancy word2_

_FUCK YOU_

_whatever dude have fun on your triip and good luck on tryiing to fiind me_

Karkat told himself that he was definitely going to find that scrawny little earth citizen and find out where he was from so he could let Eridan annoy the guy for him.

******************************************************************

“Finally land!” Karkat exclaimed as he got onto the small dock their ship stopped at. They had spent another two weeks on the boat before finally reaching a small fire nation island. Karkat liked how he didn’t need his winter coat either and how he was able to wear his sleeveless water tribe outfit. He felt like he had more freedom until Rose began ordering him around.

“Now time to find your teacher,” Rose started walking ahead. Karkat followed and so did a few sentries.

“Hey do they have to follow us?” Karkat never really liked adults so having a bunch of them follow him around was nerve wracking.

“It’s a small island so they shouldn’t have to. I’ll talk to them,” Karkat left Rose to that as he looked around. People really liked red in this place like how his nation liked blue. It was a nice change but seeing so much red was somewhat unnerving to him as well.

Rose came back to his side and he looked back to see the sentries head back to the boat, “So you have a fire bending teacher in mind for me already?”

“Yes, you hate being taught by adults right? I have someone in mind to teach you. It’s up to him and you if you can be teacher and student though. My cousin can be a bit unusual in his decisions.”

“Cousin? You have a fire bending cousin?”

“Yes and a fire bending sister and my cousin has an earth bending brother. Multicultural families must be quite fascinating to you. Also, you have met all these three that I’m talking about before.”

“Sorry I can’t remember them because I missed the last banquet,” he stated flatly.

“It’s alright. I’m sure that once you meet them you will remember,” Rose smiled at him before proceeding.

The two walked through the quaint village to find the so called cousin of hers. She asked for directions to the sword smith as Karkat surveyed the terrain. Just beside the small village was a large forest with a mountain behind it. The scenery was quite nice.

“Be careful boy. Even though the forest looks pretty there have been legends of kidnapping behind it. Many people have disappeared from that forest and the tales say it is a witch who stows them away under the mountain,” an old lady suddenly spoke beside him and Karkat jumped back with a yelp. The lady just cackled at him before walking off.

“Don’t worry about that Karkat. That is a very old legend and not even a legend at all,” Rose explained and led him in a different direction, “A long time ago a water bender posed as a villager here and kidnapped the villagers. She held them like prisoners under the mountain because she used to be a prisoner to the fire nation. It all happened during the crazy fire nation’s time so nothing should happen now if anyone were to venture in the forest now.”

“Key word here being should,” Karkat air quoted.

The two walked until they were a little bit outside the village where a sword smith was. Who even uses swords in this modern day and age? Out in the front was a blonde man with strange spiked shades that was swinging a sword, inspecting it, and swinging it again. He looked up when he heard footsteps approaching.

“Whoa no way, Rose?”

“Hello Dirk it’s been a while.”

The man quickly earth bended three seats and a table, “Sit sit, I’ll get some snacks.”

Rose sat casually while it took Karkat a few seconds to blink and stare in awe before sitting. That was obviously the earth bending cousin. The man came back merely seconds after leaving with three drinks and a plate of brownies.

“Here have some, they were gifts from Jane and Roxy,” Dirk put the plate before them and sat down. Karkat noticed he was wearing an earth nation outfit.

“Oh how lovely,” Rose immediately dug in. Karkat just stared at the plate.

“So what brings you to the fire nation?”

“We’re finding a fire bending teacher for my friend here. You remember Karkat don’t you? We were hoping Dave would teach him since Karkat does not train well under the guidance of adults.”

“Yeah I remember. Karkat the crabby kid. Missed you last banquet,” Dirk extended his hand towards Karkat and he took it. 

“Yeah well family issues.”

“Hah Dave a teacher? That would be a sight to see. But I thought this guy was a water bender.”

“He is,” Rose smiled and took a sip of her drink.

Dirk rubbed his chin in thought as he looked at Karkat with examining eyes. Well one couldn’t tell really with those ridiculous looking shades but Karkat could feel his gaze.

“Huh well the Avatar can be anyone I guess,” Dirk shrugged and sat back casually, “Dave just went to the market to buy a few things. He’ll be back soon.”

“I just hope he agrees. It would be hard to find another good young fire bending teacher,” Rose brought the cup back up to take another sip but a loud bang was heard and her cup shattered to pieces.

“Shit,” Dirk cursed before earth bending a wall behind Karkat that blocked off some more bullets, “Jake stop! Not today!”

“Oh come on now old chap! You’re always in the mood for a surprise attack- oh you have guests,” a tan and dark haired man with sparkling green eyes peeked around the wall of earth. His outfit appeared to be half earth nation and half fire nation. It was a somewhat odd look but for some reason it suited him.

“You okay Rose?” Dirk asked as he picked up the pieces of the broken cup.

“I’m alright,” Rose water bended the juice out of her outfit and onto the ground.

“Oh dear I’m so sorry madam!” Jake apologized as he put his guns back into the holsters on his sides.

“Are you crazy!? What if you actually shot her!?” Karkat shouted at the man. Jake flinched and stepped back.

“Hey hey it was an accident, she didn’t get hit so it’s fine right Rose?” Dirk looked at Karkat over his shades and his intimidating orange eyes shut him up as Rose nodded.

“Whoa what’s with the commotion,” a new voice appeared. The group turned to see a blonde boy wearing round shades and a fire nation outfit holding a couple of bags.

A flood of memories being taunted by a cool kid wannabe filled his head. Two words appeared in Karkat’s head as soon as he saw the boy.

Insufferable Prick.


	5. Hate the Insufferable Prick

“Hello Dave.”

“Rose? What the heck are you doing here?”

“Put those groceries away and come talk with us,” Rose smiled.

Dave looked at the odd bunch before shrugging and heading into the building, completely ignoring Karkat’s glare. Dirk made two more seats and got rid of the wall before going back in as well to get more cups.

“I really am sorry. Are you sure you’re alright?” Jake asked with concern as he sat down, “Oh you’re Rose, Roxy’s little sister aren’t you?”

“Yes hello Jake, it’s been a while. I’m perfectly fine. Only the poor cup was hurt. I apologize for my friend.”

“Sorry for being fucking concerned,” Karkat grumbled to himself.

“No no he was in the right to be yelling at me. I get carried away sometimes. Hey this bloke is the friend John keeps talking to isn’t it. Karkat I believe?”

“Yeah,” Karkat casually responded.

“Nice to see you. Oh could it be? Jane’s delicious confectionaries?” Jake’s attention soon caught the brownies sitting before them.

“Yes help yourself. I know you love them,” Dirk returned with Dave, “I was going to call you over but I thought you were on duty for the next week.”

“I thought so too but it turns out I wasn’t needed. I’m just a substitute after all,” Jake shrugged and helped himself to the brownies.

“Substitute for what may I ask?” Rose asked curiously.

“The military! One day a few men came over and saw me and Dirk in one of our daily scuffles and they asked us if we were interested in joining their troupes because they needed a few substitutes just in case one of their own were down for the count or ill. I joined because it sounded like quite an adventure. Dirk of course turned them down unfortunately,” Jake explained.

“Even as a substitute I’m not a military man. Just not my thing. I don’t like the idea of being a government minion.”

“Come now Dirk where’s your adventurous spirit? Even Dave agreed to be a substitute in the future.”

“I said maybe. Little pestering princesses wouldn’t take no for an answer. They kept spouting bullshit about how it would be a waste to not put my skills to good use. Even tried to sign me up for some Girl Scouts called the White Lotus in case I refused them,” Dave expressed his annoyance for the military.

“You Striders have no sense for adventure. It’s just substituting. It’s not as if you are a permanent stationary army man,” Jake sighed at them before helping himself to more brownies.

“It’s not a surprise though. Of course the military would want to recruit some skillful Striders. They know of your talents and wish to have some of the Strider action ready at their disposal,” Rose smirked, mostly about the White Lotus part.

“Whoa Rose just complimented me. Quick someone call the Ba Sing Se corps. She might be one of the leftover hypnotized greeting ladies,” Dave held his hands up in defense as Rose rolled her eyes.

“Hey if she’s complimenting a Strider here it ain’t you,” Dirk pointed out, “If I’m not mistaken, they tried to recruit Roxy too. Well that was before they realized her little habit.”  
Rose and Jake chuckled at that.

“So Rose what brings you to this little Fire Nation Island? I’m sure if you had scholarly travels to do it’d be somewhere more interesting,” Dave asked before directing his attention to Karkat, “And what’s with chuckles? He keeps looking at me like a love struck fool. I know I’m everybody’s dream but-”

“Love stru- What the fuck is wrong with you!?” Karkat cried out in disgust, “Not every fucking thing revolves around you, you know. Oh look at me I’m Dave fucking Strider and I thing I’m cool as fuck. Do you know ow annoying you are? Your sunglasses are lame and your attitude makes me want to punch you in the face!”

Dirk held back a laugh as Dave responded with raised brows, “Whoa hold up, we just met here sweetheart. This confession is just too much.”

“Fuck you asshole. You’re worse than I remember.”

Dave blinked at him before letting out a chuckle, “Haha shit. Memories and nostalgia just hit me like a tidal wave. You’re Cat-Car.”

“KARKAT!” the water bender snapped back.

“Damn I think you got louder since the last banquet.”

“I wasn’t at the last banquet smartass.”

“Well that explains why it was peaceful for once.”

Karkat slammed his hands down on the table and stood up, “Why you fucking little-” 

“Dave we are here in search for a teacher for Karkat,” Rose interrupted.

“I thought that was your job.”

“A fire bending teacher.”

“. . . Wow Rose can make a joke too, seriously were you just in Ba Sing Se before coming here or what?”

“Dave she’s serious,” Dirk stated, “And that Ba Sing Se hypnotizing thing ended centuries ago stop bringing it up.”

“Wait why does Karkat need a fire bending teacher? Isn’t he a water bender?” Jake asked confused. He obviously didn’t get it as fast as Dirk and Dave did.

“There is no way it can be him. It’s impossible. You’re crazy.”

“Dave you know I’m not one to keep a joke this long. I’m not John,” Rose calmly enjoyed her new drink.

Dave scratched his head, “Alright so if he really was the one, not saying he really is yet, why me as his teacher? I know there’s not many benders to go around like before but there are other fire benders besides me.”

“Karkat doesn’t do very well when learning under the elders. He learns better from ones closer to his age. Technically we know three fire benders including you, one is a pirate, and Roxy is well . . . you know.”

“You have got to be kidding me. Why does crabby have to be such a little princess?” 

Karkat held back a snarl.

“What’s going on? Is there something special about our little friend here?” Jake asked, feeling out of the loop. Karkat eye twitched upon hearing the word ‘little’. Eridan always picked on his height whenever he could.

“Really Jake can’t figure it out?” Dirk teased.

“Come now just tell me. Help a bro out.”

“Nah this is funnier,” Dirk ducked from a playful blow from Jake.

“What makes you think he’ll even listen to me?” Dave asked Rose as if Karkat wasn’t there which annoyed the water bender, “And what makes you think I want to teach him?”

“He has no choice in the matter. And it would be ever so helpful if you could teach him. Both of you could learn something from this experience.”

“Yeah learn how much this guy is going to try to hit me after every time I tell him he’s doing stuff wrong if he really is the one.”

“God dammit can someone tell me what you blokes are all blubbering about!?” Jake called out. Dirk just sympathetically patted his shoulder.

“You could always see for yourself,” Rose suggested.

Karkat groaned, “It’s another match isn’t it.”

“How else can we show him? He’s the kind that must see before he believes.”

“That’s not me all the time,” Dave tried to defend himself. Dirk snorted, Dave gave his brother a glance before sighing and turning back to Rose, “Let’s see what you got Crabby.”

“Alright then,” Karkat stood up and Dave did as well.

“Let’s all go to the back field to watch shall we?” Dirk got up along with the other two. 

The table and stools went back into the ground as the group headed to the back of the sword smith. In the back was a large empty field that looked like it had faced many battles. The Striders along with Jake must have used this worn out field many times. Bumpy earth, burnt areas and small holes, most likely from gun shots, could be seen all over the field. Karkat heard a strange sound and looked behind him to see Dirk carry out a large bin of water for him to use. It was probably from what they used to cool down the swords when molding.

“Don’t worry short stuff. I’ll go easy on you,” Dave casually walked to the other side of the field. The sound of moving water made him jump forward and roll. A crack was heard. Still in his crouched position the Strider turned and narrowed his eyes at the bender with the stream of water between his hands. Well it felt like he was glaring, not like Karkat could actually tell with the shades in the way, but he felt the intense gaze in his direction.

Karkat expected the blonde to throw a blast his way but the boy didn’t. Instead he calmly stood up and took a ready position. Karkat blinked at him a few times until the Strider smirked and made a beckoning motion with his right hand. The water bender bought the bait and lashed the stream at him again. Dave ducked down and took a large step before standing again and becoming considerably closer to Karkat. This motion continued until Dave was a meter away from the water bender and that’s when Karkat began lashing the water more furiously than before. Dave hadn’t even sent out any fire yet and he just continued to dodge every single attack.

“His movements have gotten better,” Rose commented from the watchers bench Dirk made for them, “He’s gotten smoother and does not act as rashly as before.”

“Of course, who do you think teaches him? Even if we’re different elements you have to have the right attitude and stay calm in any sort of match. Of course I still beat his ass everyday but yeah he’s gotten better,” Dirk sat back proudly. Jake decided to stop asking questions and just watch to see what would happen.

After a while Dave was just dodging with his hands in his pockets. Karkat became more frustrated after each attack. The poor beaten earth around them held the remains of lash marks from Karkat’s furious bending along with a few icicles stuck into the ground that were melting under the fire nation’s burning sun.

“You done?” Dave looked down at Karkat who was bent over and supporting himself with his hands above his knees, trying to regain his breath.

“Fuck . . . You! You aren’t even taking . . . me seriously!” Karkat took in a deep breath and roared, “ATTACK BACK!” 

Fire flew out of his mouth which caught Dave off guard and the boy hastily pulled his hands out of his pocket. His arms flew up to shield himself. The attack was too close and gave him no reaction time to do anything because he wasn’t expecting it. Karkat with wide eyes quickly closed his mouth and put his hands over his mouth. He stepped back but lost his balance and fell on his ass, hands still covering his mouth.

“By golly he’s the Avatar!” Jake finally clued in.

The flames disappeared in the air and in front of him was a large block of earth. He looked to the side to see Dirk standing in a position and with a few movements the block returned to the flat terrain. Karkat looked back to see Dave also on his ass but with his head hung low and his hands on his chin. His body trembled for a few moments before he snapped his head up.

“FUCK BRO THAT HURT!” the Strider broke his impassive face and barked. It looked like when Dirk brought up that wall to protect Dave, he also smashed the earth into his brother’s chin. The blood falling down the blonde’s neck was proof.

“Shit it’s your fault for not expecting the unexpected,” Dirk said with slight irritation. He felt that he had taught his brother better.

Rose quickly walked over with a bowl of water and a cloth. She swiftly cleaned off the blood before healing the boy’s chin. Karkat stayed in his spot a few meters away and quickly looked away as the blood seeped into the white cloth. His hands stayed over his mouth. Dirk and Jake walked over and brought Dave inside to get a bandage while Rose confronted Karkat. The boy flinched when Rose put a hand on his shoulder.

“Are you alright?”

The Avatar quickly nodded.

“Karkat remove your hands.”

He shook his head.

“Karkat.”

After a short glare off Karkat hesitantly took his hands away from his mouth. Rose instantly tilted his head up to see better, “Hm it appears you have managed to not burn yourself. With that large mouth of yours yelling all the time I should have expected it.”

“Instead you expected me to burn myself,” Karkat frowned at her.

“You have surprised many today,” Rose stood up and extended her hand towards him. He ignored the hand and just stood up on his own. 

They walked to the back door of the sword smith where Jake was waiting for them, “Dave will be alright thanks to Rose’s healing. Dirk is giving him a patch right now so he will be fine. But wow the Avatar! How exciting! You get to travel around the world and learn all the elements, what an adventure!”

“Yeah hey do me a favour and don’t tell anyone,” Karkat declared.

“What why not? The world should know that the Avatar has been found.”

“I don’t want to attract any unwanted attention.”

“Jake the world has changed in the past few decades. We are not sure how the world will react to the new Avatar’s arrival so perhaps it is best to keep it a secret. At least not until he has learned the other elements,” Rose explained.

“Well alright then. Your secret is safe with me,” Jake smiled.

“While we wait for Dave to recover and give us his answer shall we go shopping Karkat?” Rose asked.

“Shopping? Why the fuck do we need to go shopping?” Karkat frowned.

“If we are staying here for a while then we will need some suitable fire nation clothes don’t you think? That way we attract less attention?”

“Oh yeah a water bending fire nation citizen is totally normal and won’t attract any fucking attention at all.”

“If you want I could get you some earth nation outfits instead like Dirk has or a mix like Jake. Our water tribe outfits appear to stand out more than the other two.”

Karkat looked at Jake who just continued to smile which reminded him of another buck toothed boy that always smiled before looking back to Rose, “Just get me whatever. I’m gonna go take a walk.”

“Alright then, Jake will you accompany me since I do not know my way around?” Rose quickly interrupted Jake who looked like he was about to volunteer to walk with Karkat.

“Oh of course,” Jake took Rose’s offer.

“Don’t get lost now Karkat,” Rose turned and left with Jake.

Karkat just glared at their retreating figures before heading towards the forest at the back of the sword smith. He aimlessly walked through the trees and lush green terrain. His mind was stuck on the match. He could not land a single hit what so ever and the blonde didn’t even let out a tiny bit of fire to counter. He knew that the Strider could have probably beat him without using bending at all if the boy even bothered to attack.

His phone let out a little tune and he pulled it out to see a text message.

_)(ey t)(ere all powerful Avatar. You reac)( t)(e fire nation yet?_

_YEAH_

_So? Did you find a teac)(er yet?_

_NOT SURE_

_W)(at’s t)(at supposed to mean? Quit being so vague and tell me. 38|_

_I JUST HAD A MATCH AGAINST ROSE’SCOUSIN WHO’S APPARENTLY REALLY GOOD AND WELL SOMETHING HAPPENED AND WE’RE KIND OF JUST WAITING UNTIL HE GIVES US AN ANSWER_

_Cousin? T)(at cool guy wit)( t)(e s)(ades rig)(t? Dave!_

_YEAH_

_O)( )(e’s really good. It’d be awesome if you learned from )(im. 38)_

_I DON’T KNOW I REALLY DON’T LIKE HIM HE’S LIKE A REAL FUCKING ASSHOLE LIKE HE’S MORE OF A DOUCHEBAG THAN ERIDAN AND SOLLUX COMBINED THAT’S HOW MUCH OF AN ASSHOLE HE IS_

_Really? I remember )(im as being really nice and cool from t)(e last banquet. )(im and Jo)(n were all )(aving fun toget)(er and making everyone laug)(._

_WELL HE’S NOT. HE’S THE BIGGEST ASSHOLE ON THE PLANET AND I DON’T THINK I CAN LEARN FROM HIM EVEN IF HE DECIDES TO TEACH ME WHICH I THINK HE WONT_

_W)(at if )(e does decide to teac)( you? You s)(ould at least try._

_THAT FUCKING DEPENDS I GUESS_

_You can do it Karkat. I believe you can 38)_

_YEAH WHATEVER HOWS PRINCESSING_

_It’s soooooo boring wit)(out you guys )(ere! All the EXCIT—EMENT is gone 38(  
O)( but your Dad did somet)(ing pretty awesome last week. )(e caug)(t a giant squid! It’s )(UG—E!_

_DID THAT IDIOT GO BY HIMSELF?_

_Yea)( t)(at’s w)(y it was so awesome._

_I TOLD HIM NOT TO GO ALONE OH MY GOD HE COULD HAVE GOTTEN KILLED  
THAT THING ALMOST KILLED US THE DAY BEFORE I LEFT_

_)(e was perfectly fine t)(oug)(. Not a scratch)( on )(im.  
)(e)(e but t)(at’s pretty cute of you to be worried about your Dad like t)(at._

_WELL WHEN HE’S DOING STUPID STUFF LIKE THAT  
AND WELL HE’S THE ONLY FAMILY I GOT LEFT_

_Will it make you feel better if I watc)(ed over )(im for you? I won’t let )(im do somet)(ing crazy like t)(at again._

_I GUESS_

_Alrig)(t so you better try your )(ardest to learn all t)(e elements okay!_

_LIKE I SAID BEFORE NOT LIKE I HAVE A FUCKING CHOICE ESPECIALLY WITH ROSE AROUND_

Karkat looked up from his phone and found a large field of red flowers before him. In the middle of the field was a rock that looked like it was sliced in half. He had never really seen flowers very often but he for sure knew that none could be as bright red as these. They just looked so unnatural. With a nauseating feeling in his stomach thanks to the red flowers, Karkat tucked his phone away to turn and leave but then realised he had no idea where he was. Recalling Rose’s taunt from before motivated him to find his way back. 

“You lost?” a familiar smooth voice appeared. Karkat twitched with irritation and whirled around to find Dave leaning against a tree. His chin had a bandage patch on it but otherwise he looked perfectly fine.

“No, just taking a walk.”

“Right. Lead the way then.”

Karkat turned back around and started walking. Dave followed his footsteps and the two remained quiet. They walked like this for about an hour and Karkat was somehow able to ignore the person behind him and not snap like he usually would. He thought to himself that the less interaction the better. Soon the sun was beginning to set and Karkat sighed before turning around to see the Strider just standing there nonchalantly.

“Alright I’m lost. You knew I was going the wrong way the whole time so why didn’t you fucking tell me.”

“Looked like you didn’t want me to tell you.”

Karkat sighed, “I’m too tired for this, just lead us back already.”

“Sure thing your majesty,” Dave turned to his right and began walking. Karkat didn’t even bother with a fuck you that time.

They walked in silence for a few minutes before Karkat spoke up, “So are you going to teach me fire bending or what? Tell me now so I can tell Rose and we can get the fuck out of your hair.”

“I’ll teach you.”

Karkat’s brows furrowed.

“You got the attitude for it. It’s a wonder how you were born a water bender but I guess I kind of makes sense with you being the Avatar since you have to learn everything else anyways. And Rose is totally depending on me to teach you so I should do her the favour.”

“You’re a douchebag you know that.”

“And you’re an annoying crabby little brat but let’s get through our differences and teach you shit so you can get out of here and learn whatever other Avatar shit you gotta learn.”

“Fucking fine by me.”

The two reached the end of the forest and reached the sword smith where Rose was waiting. Inside Karkat could hear the sounds of a sword being made.

“You got lost didn’t you.”

“Shut up.”

“Dirk will finish up with his last project soon and then we can rest here for the night. He has extra rooms for us if you would like. Either that or you can go stay on the boat.”

“Here is fine,” Karkat mumbled.

“Alright princess, get your rest. Tomorrow is day one of Camp Dave’s fire bending. You’ll need all the rest you can get,” Dave stretched and headed inside, “Let’s see how long you last.”

Rose looked at him disappear before looking at Karkat and giving him a small smile, “Congratulations, it appears we will be here for a while.”


	6. Fire Training

­Karkat glared at his fire nation outfit. It was of course completely red.

“You said to get you whatever. You have no one to blame but yourself,” Rose commented upon seeing his glare.

He looked at his childhood friend also adorned in the fire nation outfit. He wondered if she should have originally been a fire nation citizen or not. It just appeared so natural on her. With a sigh he decided to leave it at that since he didn’t give her any specifications in the first place, “Hey why am I learning fire first? Isn’t there an order to this whole element learning thing?”

“Yes but it appears that you have more talent with fire over earth so we shall start with this before moving on,” Rose explained.

“Do I really have to learn it from this guy? Is there no one else you know?” Karkat complained.

“Unless you wish to be taught by the elders then you have no other choice but him.”

“But he’s such an asshole. I don’t think I can learn from him,” Karkat complained some more before something hard impacted with the back of his head, “OW FUCK.”

The Avatar whipped his head around to see his supposed fire bending teacher tossing a small rock up and down in his hand. Another rock was a few meters from him which was probably the rock the boy threw at the Avatar’s head.

“If you actually decided to listen then you could probably learn properly. It’s amazing that Rose was able to teach you water bending at all,” the sunglasses wearing boy continued to toss the rock up and down.

“True, it was extremely difficult but I somehow managed,” Rose let out an exasperated sigh causing Karkat to scowl.

“I told you to do some breathing exercises. Fire bending is all about controlling your breaths. Otherwise all you get is air. Wait no not even air because you can’t bend that either. You’d get nothing and then stand there like a gaping idiot and watch yourself as your ass gets thrown to the ground by your enemy over and over again. Your ass will be so full of dirt that you won’t even be able to earth bend it out no matter how hard you tried.”

“Wow you rant more than Rose said you would,” Karkat scoffed at the boy making him stop in his little tossing of the rock in his hands.

“If you’re just going to be a little princess about this and not listen when I’m teaching you then go home brat,” Dave dropped the rock and turned around. Rose sighed before giving Karkat a look that told him ‘do something idiot’.

“How the fuck can breathing exercises help me? I already know how to fire bend!” Karkat quickly sputtered out.

Dave turned around again and looked at him expectantly, “Alright then show me all powerful avatar.”

Karkat held out his closed fist towards Dave and opened it with his palm facing up. A small flame appeared and sat the in his palm.

“Congratulations, you can light candles and you have a slight chance of making a campfire. So what if you can bring out a tiny flame? You can’t actually bend it and you can’t attack anyone with that pathetic flame. I talked to Rose yesterday, it looks like you can only get a real flaming attack out when you’re pissed off and that’s the worst thing to rely on for fire bending. Sure you get some pretty decent flames but most of the time all you get is hot air. AKA nothing.”

Karkat closed his fist again and clenched it. He put it back to his side before looking down with a scowl.

“Now if you’re done being a baby. Shut up and do your breathing exercises.”

Karkat looked up and glared at him.

“Come on, I haven’t got all day now,” the sunglasses wearing boy crossed his arms.

“Karkat please, do not let our long journey come to nothing. And remember you do have two bets to fulfil,” Rose reminded him.

Karkat glared at Rose, “I am not going to do the fucking breathing exercises.”

“Karkat.”

“No, who the fuck does breathing exercises in that sort of position!?”

“Hey if you don’t do it then we can’t move on,” Dave shrugged.

“No. There is no way in fucking hell. I will let the spirits drag me through hell and back before I do something that ridiculously stupid.”

“If you don’t do the squat then go home or find some old bag to teach you. They’re all going to tell you the same thing so might as well save yourself he trouble and do it now.”

“Fuck you.”

“Promise?”

Karkat was taken aback by that comeback and stepped back with disgust. Dave held back a snort.

Rose rolled her eyes at the two, “Is there no other way Dave? Did you really do those exercises yourself?”

Dave went silent there and Karkat had to hold back a smirk.

“Perhaps it would be easier for Karkat if you gave him a demonstration.”

Now Karkat believed that the Strider would chicken out since of course the squat would be too embarrassing to do in front of everyone. Yes Dirk and Jake were just hanging at the side watching. Especially with his self-proclaimed cool kid demeanor. That was until the boy walked over to him and kicked him behind the knees. It wasn’t a hard kick but it made Karkat stumble forward a bit and go into a half squatting position and beside him the Strider stood in a perfect squatting position with his hands in fists by his sides.

“Like this, easy.”

Karkat just gave him an odd look from his awkward position.

“What do I need to put you into it myself? Need mommy to guide you all the way?”

Karkat just grumbled and squatted with his hands by his sides just like the Strider. He could practically feel Rose standing behind him and trying not to laugh at them. Jake still had that goofy smile on and Dirk was definitely smirking.

“Come on man wider.”

“What?”

“Legs further apart, if you don’t get in the right stance then you’re breathing will be off.”

“How the fuck does a stance affect your breathing?”

“Shut up and listen to the expert.”

“Expert my ass,” Karkat looked at the audience to glare at them and found that Rose had joined them and was talking to them. Jake started laughing and Dirk’s smirk stayed in place.

“If you want I could be an expert at your ass.”

“FUCK YOU! STOP WITH THE SEXUAL HARASSMENT!”

“You’re just making this too easy. Also your legs aren’t far enough apart,” Dave slid his right foot over and hooked it around Karkat’s left foot and pulled.

Karkat pulled back, “I’m in the right fucking stance.”

“No you’re not, your legs are supposed to be farther apart.”

“Farther apart this!” Karkat unhooked his leg from Dave’s and kicked the boy’s ankle as hard as he could. It resulted in his leg sliding forward with the Strider’s and the two ended up somewhat back to back with one another. Karkat’s left leg was extended and still hooked around Dave’s right which was also extended while their other legs were still bent. Dave unhooked Karkat’s foot from his and then spun around still in the same stance and slid his extended leg to kick Karkat’s bent one. The Avatar rolled forward to dodge and turned around to face the shades wearing boy with a snarl.

“Damn you’re like a ferocious wild animal. It’s going to be a while before getting you perfectly house trained.”

And Karkat tackled him.

The two rolled across the field while scratching (mostly Karkat), punching (Dave) or trying to just grab or hurt each other. The three spectators just watched as Dave struggled against the profanity spewing boy.

“Blimey Rose was right about how they wouldn’t be able to end this without a wrestling match,” Jake commented, “Shouldn’t we stop them?”

“Nah let them struggle it out to let the kid know how dumb he’s being,” Dirk stated before yawning and standing up with a stretch, “I’m going to work, tell me when the kid can make a decent flame.”

Rose sighed as Dirk left, “There is no obligation for you to be here Jake. All you will be seeing is the same thing for the next couple of days. I guarantee it so you might as well find another object of interest to take your time, aside from this.”

“Now I don’t think it would be right to leave you all be yourself with these ruffians. Perhaps I can stay and help them out a bit,” Jake suggested.

“Well if you insist. You don’t have anything better to do don’t you since Dirk is occupied with work don’t you.”

“Spot on as always Miss Lalonde,” Jake chuckled.

“GET OFF OF ME!”

The two looked over to said ruffians and found that Dave had managed to pin down the angry Avatar, “I’m not getting off until you settle down. I’m just doing my job here and if you don’t like it then you can just go home like I’ve said since the beginning princess. You’re just wasting everyone’s time with being a prissy asshole alright. If you don’t like the way I teach then go find some old fart that has nothing better to do.”

“Now now Dave it may be time to take a break now,” Jake walked over and crouched down.

“What break?” Dave let go of Karkat’s arms and crossed them while sitting up right, “We barely even did anything.”

The Avatar took this chance to topple over his frustrating teacher and scrambled away. For some reason his face was a little flushed. He blamed it on the little wrestling match they just had.

“I never asked you to be my teacher anyway fucknuts!” Karkat screamed at him before storming off towards the forest once again.

“You have one special case here Rose,” Dave put a hand to his cheek and hissed at the scratch mark Karkat left on him.

“Yes I’ve never seen someone able to catch you off your guard so easily,” Rose splashed a little of water on his face before following Karkat into the trees.

Dave put his hand to his cheek again and found that the wound closed. A hand was extended to him and he looked at Jake before accepting it and getting up. Jake just gave him a smile.

“I’ve never met someone who could have a hissy fit every five minutes before,” Dave patted the dirt off himself, “I’ll be working with Dirk if you need me Rose and don’t bring kitty if he’s still being  a dick.”

“I think the only time he’s being a dick around anyone is if it is you or Eridan.”

“Fish prince I get but why me?”

“You two just seem to be so compatible in the strangest way,” she gave him a smirk before disappearing.

“Compatible? How the fuck are we compatible shouldn’t it be the opposite?” Dave mumbled to himself.

Jake slung his arm over the boy’s shoulder as the two walked back to the sword smith, “Well I’m not exactly sure what Rose means by that but I can tell you there was some sort of connection between the two of you.”

“English do you need new glasses? The only thing that connected was his nails to my face.”

“It wasn’t that bad and Rose healed it easily. I’m sure that once you two get to know each other, you’ll become the best of chums.”

“Fat chance.”

*******************************************************************************

“Fucking little. UGH! He’s just so-,” with a snarl Karkat punched a tree and cursed while shaking the pain away. He sighed and sat on a rock, “What the fuck am I even doing.”

“That’s a wonderful question and I’m glad you managed to ask yourself that.”

Karkat looked up and found Rose leaning against a tree near him.

“Since you got lost yesterday I came to make sure you wouldn’t again.”

He said nothing and went back to scowling at the ground.

“At this rate, you will barely know the basics of fire bending before the year is up and then how will you face your father?”

The boy just eye rolled, “You are the master of cheering someone up.”

“Who said I was trying to cheer you up?”

“Oh my bad, that’s right, it’s impossible for a fucking Lalonde to comfort anyone.”

“You’re not helping yourself.”

“Just leave me alone.”

“As much as I would love to, it’s my duty to take care of you and see that you learn all the elements.”

“The duty you fucking gave yourself.”

“Would you rather me or the white lotus sentinels. Although I don’t think they could last a day over watching you.”

“I’m surprised you’re still fucking here.”

“Well in a way we are childhood friends even if you do deny it. Being the one that had put up with you the longest, I got used to it.”

“Where the fuck are you going with this!? If you’re going to just blab fucking nonsense then get the fuck away from me!” Karkat snapped and stood up, “That’s all you fucking do. You just rant about the most random shit ever that’s irrelevant to anyone and don’t give a shit about the real problem and you just . . . try to distract . . .”

Karkat sat down when he realised that she really was trying to comfort him by making him think of something else.

Rose took this moment to sit beside him, “Have you talked to John yet? He’s told me that he has tried to contact you but you never replied. The news of our travels have spread but not the reason why. Will you tell him?”

“Why so he can laugh at me and don’t believe a single fucking word I say like everyone else? They’re all going to laugh in my fucking face like Vriska when they all find out.”

“You never know, I’m sure there will those that will become fascinated like Feferi did.”

“And you, except you tagged along for the trip out of that ice prison. I bet Feferi would have come too if she weren’t a princess.”

“Exactly so instead of moping around and causing problems for everyone, why don’t you live the adventure for the ones who are unable to? Feferi will be expecting many tales of our travels once we return.”

“That’s your fucking job with all your scholarly shit.”

“She’ll want to hear it from the Avatar herself and you won’t have many tales if all you do is argue with your teachers.”

“. . .”

“Your father would love to hear all your stories as well. Didn’t you want him to be proud that you accomplished so many things once you return?”

“Fuck fine I get it. Just shut up now.”

“I’ll take that as a ‘thank you Rose you are right and I’m sorry for never believing you’,” she gave him a smirk and he couldn’t help but smile back.

Her eyes widened for a second before returning to her usual self and getting up, “Now let’s have you apologize to Dave.”

“What? Hah fuck no. I am not apologizing to that douchenozzle.”

“Karkat you have to or would you rather we go into the large city and get a master for you?”

He scowled and looked away.

“I brought you here because I know you don’t like learning from adults so take this chance properly and like Dave said, stop being so spoilt about it. Honestly even Feferi never acts like this.”

“I’m not fucking promising anything.”

“Please try your hardest. Not just for yourself but for everyone else. It would be a laughing stock to you and the ones who were trying to help you if you can’t even do such a simple thing as apologizing.”

Karkat didn’t reply, he just got up and began to storm off.

“Wrong way.”

He froze and turned to glare at her who was just sitting there with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.

“Lead the way . . . please . . .” he asked politely like the way he knew she would like.

“So you do have manners. It’s a start.”

Karkat face palmed once she turned around to leave and quietly followed after with his hands in his pockets.

**********************************************************************************

“Dave, Karkat has something he wishes to say to you,” Rose began once she got a hold of Dave.

“This I gotta see,” Dirk stopped working and walked closer to watch the show. Thankfully, Jake had already left earlier so the audience was smaller.

Dave wiped his arm over his forehead to wipe the sweat away from their current work. Karkat couldn’t help but look at the finely toned boy that was only wearing some pants and a muscle shirt with a towel hanging from his neck.

Suddenly the room felt very hot. Must have been from the fire from the sword making.

“Well? Spit it out kittykat.”

“First of all stop with the fucking stupid names.”

“Fine then Vantas. Just hurry up and get this over with. I have to finish this piece before it gets ruined.”

Karkat felt his face heating up. He was getting embarrassed even before he managed to mutter the apology.

Dave turned back to the unfinished sword and waved at him to leave, “If all you’re going to do is stand there and stare at me then go home already. I won’t teach an unwilling brat.”

“I’m sorry.”

Dave froze mid swing of his hammer and turned around, “What.”

“I know you heard me don’t make me say it again,” Karkat looked away and felt his face heating up some more, “I’ll properly listen to you from now on with no complaints. I’d rather learn from a di- . . . from you rather than some old fart so yeah . . .”

A strange silence hung in the air for a while as Karkat kept his eyes trained to Dave’s shoes which were actually some pretty cool red and white sneak-

“Okay I’m down, we’ll try again after lunch,” Dave replied and went back to work. His hammer hitting the sword startled Karkat making him jump.

“A-Alright then,” the boy quickly left the room before he could embarrass himself any further.

Dave stopped once he made sure Karkat was gone, “Wow, I didn’t think a guy like that even knew what the word sorry meant. I don’t know how you did it Rose.”

“It takes someone with great skill to do so,” he could hear the smirk in her voice, “See you after lunch.”

Dirk watched Rose leave and then at Dave who went back to pounding at the sword.

“Dude your face is red.”

Dave abruptly dropped the hammer and cursed.

“You finish this. I’m hungry,” after tossing his towel at his brother, the fire bending teacher left the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I LIIIIVVVVEEEEEEE
> 
> Now to hide away for another 50 years
> 
> No I'm kidding
> 
> With LoK starting back up it's inspired me to keep this going. It's a shame I ever stopped. I can't promise any properly scheduled and constant updates though but it will be sooner than like once every few months. I will try my best for an update once a week, latest being once every two weeks.
> 
> I hope you all enjoy what's to come!!!


	7. Breathe

“Since you apologized so kindly before, I’ll be nice and spare you the stupid squat and have you do a different exercise. Like you don’t even know how nice I’m being here by sparing you this mandatory step. It’s so chivalrous and merciful of me, not to mention brilliant, to let you move on to something simple yet equal to the exercise before. I should be a master at this age. All those elders would want me in their little groupies and do all their master stuff with them, but of course I’d turn them down since it’s not my style to hang with old dudes. Not saying they’re not cool or anything, they’re just-”

“Can we just get on with it already!?” Karkat interrupted, “Jesus fuck just show me what to do already! Do you even hear yourself? You chatter more than a reptile bird! How does a person even stand to listen to your nonsensical ramblings and walk away with their ears intact? Or how are they able to process any information that leaves your mouth? It’s not that hard to give out instructions. Just three or four sentences to teach me how to do it but no! You have to go on and on about whatever irrelevant bullshit you want and confuse the fuck out of the rest of us!”

“Wow,” Dirk stated once Karkat finished his spiel.

“I know right,” Rose replied as if this was an everyday occurrence to her.

“It’s like being forced against your will to be the audience of a really bad rap off.”

The teacher and the Avatar turned to look at the spectators, Karkat was glaring and perhaps Dave was as well but of course with those shades Karkat couldn’t tell.

“Fine here catch,” out of the blue, Dave threw three candles and a scroll at Karkat. The water tribe boy scrambled to catch them but only managed to catch one and the scroll hit him square in the forehead. Where the fire bender got the items was a wonder. He definitely wasn’t holding them before during his strange rant.

“Fuck did you really have to do that?” Karkat snapped at him as he rubbed his forehead before picking up the rest of the items.

“Yes since you’re so eager and have such a large urgency to learn. But I think I’m just going to let you figure out what the hell to do on your own. I’m going back to work, I’ll check on you in a few hours,” Dave turned and left swiftly.

“Hey wait what the fuck? What kind of teacher are you leaving me like this!?”

“If you can’t even figure this out on your own then you don’t need me.”

“Asshole you said you would teach me already!”

“Your attitude keeps changing my mind,” and with that Dave went back inside.

Karkat snapped his head to the side to look at Rose as if he expected her to do something. She just sighed and continued talking to Dirk for a few more seconds before following him inside. That probably meant ‘figure it out yourself dumbass’.

With a scowl he sat down with crossed legs and put the items down. He first looked at the scroll. Inside were pictures of forms and stances for fire bending. What the candles were for he wasn’t sure. Was the fire bender mocking him about the lighting candles thing from earlier that day? His first thought was yes until he thought more about it and remembered the breathing exercises he was supposed to do. How would candles help?

Setting the candles aside, he started with the scroll. Even if he couldn’t fire bend properly yet, it would do good to know the forms. As he placed the scroll down to start, he noticed there was some writing on the back.

‘Noob fire bending for dumbasses.’

That made Karkat throw the scroll on the ground with a fit.

“Fucking asshole, I’ll show him,” after straightening the scroll again, he began the practice the forms.

***************************************************

“What the hell is he doing out there?” Dave peeked out the window after working for two hours.

“Looks like he’s practicing the forms,” Rose commented not looking up from her book.

“Did he even try to do the breathing exercise?” Dave looked around and saw the unused candles before sighing.

“You were not clear on what had to be done. I really do question why of all people I had chosen you to teach him but I had no other choice in the matter.”

“Thanks your confidence in me makes my heart a flutter.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Fuck I’ll be right back,” Dave complained and went outside to the neglected avatar.

Karkat didn’t even bother to look at him as he walked out. He just continued to practice the forms.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Karkat responded calmly without stopping.

“Not doing what I told you to do. I said to do the breathing exercise first.”

“What fucking breathing exercises!?” Karkat snapped at him, “You’ve just been a total asshat this entire time! You claim to be a great teacher but you’re doing nothing so far! I already apologized and yet you just continue to be a dick!”

“Fine you want mommy to hold your hand through all this then fine,” he walked up to Karkat and grabbed his right wrist. He went behind the water tribe boy and held his right arm out. With his left he pulled the boy’s shoulder straight and kicked his legs apart into a proper fire bending stance, “Your stances aren’t solid enough and you have to go a bit further or you won’t get the right momentum to get a good flame.”

Karkat was about to curse at him but then he felt Dave’s chest against his back.

_Too close. He’s going to feel my heartbeat._

The Avatar felt his face heat up and he quickly pulled away from Dave. He turned to look at Dave but found himself looking at the ground instead, “D-Didn’t you say that we should do those stupid breathing exercises first?”

“Right,” thankfully for Karkat, Dave didn’t seem to notice or didn’t bother to notice his face and went to get the candles.

He let out a breath of relief as Dave set the three candles in a row. He was startled when Dave suddenly pulled him down to sit in front of the three candles, “Gyah what the fuck?”

“Light the candles.”

In his head Karkat mimicked Dave’s voice before actually lighting the candles, “There, see I can light them just fine.”

“Now shut your eyes and meditate. Concentrate on your breathing, be calm and concentrate on the flames.”

Without responding Karkat crossed his legs and shut his eyes.

“There hopefully you can even get this done right. I’ll be back in an hour.”

“Whatever.”

Dave made a small tsk sound before heading back. As soon as he got back in he leaned against the door and put a hand to his forehead, “What kind of face was that . . .”

“Face?” Dirk appeared out of nowhere.

“Nothing! No face, uh you finished that last piece yet?” Dave panicked a bit. Dirk frowned at him.

“Yeah, I’m going into town now. Old lady at the bakery wanted to give me something from helping her last week.”

“Right okay see you,” Dave walked further into the house as Dirk headed out.

“By the way your face is red again.”

Dave flinched before going to his room and slamming the door.

“You gracefully handled that.”

“FUCK. Lalonde what the hell are you doing in my room?”

“I see your tastes have not changed over the years,” Rose inspected the jars preserving strange objects.

“Rose.”

“If you want to talk about anything I’ll be glad to listen.”

“No psychoanalyzing for you today, now get out.”

“It’s not healthy to keep it in,” Rose gave him a concerned look, “It’s not like you to be like this. Does it have something to do with Karkat? I know I haven’t seen you in a long time but this is ridiculous.”

“The only thing ridiculous here is that brat’s attitude and how you must feel the need to poke your head into everything. Rose I don’t need any talks alight, just . . . I need to be alone. I’m tired from work okay.”

“. . . Right,” Rose head to the door, “Remember if you do need any-”

“Rose out.”

And with a sigh she left. Dave flopped onto his bed and took off his sunglasses. He rubbed his eyes with a groan, “Damn what’s wrong with me.”

********************************************************************

A couple of days passed and Karkat was beginning to get the hang of it, even if Dave only led him for a brief moment before letting him do everything else on his own. It kind of felt like Dave was trying to avoid him. It was fine for the Avatar, the less he saw the alleged teacher’s smug face the better. The breathing exercise was very calming. The fire moved with his breaths as he meditated and he was able to do some proper fire bending with some of the basic forms. Even if it was mostly self-taught, he was actually getting somewhere.

During one of his meditating sessions a sharp animal cry was heard and he snapped his head up to yell at whatever was disrupting him. A large bird flew overhead and landed on a post by the window of the sword smith. It tapped on the window a few times before Dave open the window.

“Hey it’s Dorito.”

“Do not honestly tell me you named your raven-eagle after a chip,” Karkat had walked over to see what was going on.

“Yeah so what of it?”

Karkat pinched the bridge of his nose, “Okay whatever. Since when did you own a raven-eagle?”

“Since always. I just don’t bring him a long everywhere and he likes to wander on his own. He usually doesn’t come back unless he has a message for me or if my number one customer comes,” Dave examined the bird, “Looks like there’s no note so looks like she’s coming.”

“Who the hell sends messages by bird these days? Phones and computers were created for a reason.”

“Hey not all ships have internet you know.”

“So who’s this number one customer of yours?”

“You’ll see. It’s someone even you shouldn’t be able to forget,” the raven-eagle screeched at Karkat before taking off and flying towards the docks. Dave held back a laugh when Karkat almost fell over in surprise, “I guess you can take a break today. Come out to the front and we’ll wait for her.”

Karkat wanted to object and continue practicing but he was curious as to whom Dave was referring to. At the front of the sword smith Rose was already waiting with Dirk.

“I’m guessing she’s as eccentric as ever. Probably more since the last banquet. How often does she come here?” Rose questioned Dirk.

“About four times a year. She’s our best customer and makes sure she gets all her crews’ weapons from us.”

“Can’t you just tell me who it is?” Karkat asked Dave.

“Nah you’ll see for yourself.”

Up ahead at the town’s edge, a group of police like looking people came towards them. Their uniforms were made entirely of metal and the first thing Karkat thought of was metal benders. At the front of the group was a shorter girl that looked about his age. She had on a large grin and bright pretty eyes. As soon as she saw the four of them waiting for her she ran ahead.

“Hey cool kid!” she immediately hugged him. Karkat stared at her boldness.

“Hey TZ long time no see. Here to get more stuff already?” he gave her a little smile as she let go and the rest of the men following her caught up.

“Yeah we got a bunch of new recruits and I’m not letting my men use those pathetic weapons that the capitol makes. That’s insulting to my team. We might be a while since I got a big order this time.”

“Alright sounds fun.”

“And who are these two?” the short enforcer grinned at Karkat and Rose.

“I thought you said she knows me Dave,” Karkat frowned at the girl. She really looked familiar though.

“She does, she just-”

“Captain! I found your glasses!” another man ran towards them. He handed over some spectacles to the girl and she immediately put them on.

“Ah that’s better,” she blinked to focus. Her glasses had thick pointed red frames and extremely thick lenses. How she was even able to run towards them without tripping over something was a wonder, “No way! Karkat Vantas!? What are you doing in the fire nation?”

She went up really close to his face with a larger grin than before. He backed up and blinked.

“Terezi?”


	8. Watch and Learn

“Hah it’s really you!” the girl cried out and put an arm around the water bender, “No way Rose too? What are you water tribe folks doing here? Is the princess and fish boy here too?”

“No unfortunately it’s just these two flighty broads,” Dave backed away from the kick Karkat sent but was unable to avoid the hard smack on his arm from Rose.

“And here I travelled half way across the world to find a proper fire bending teacher yet I’m stuck with this mess.”

“Fire bending teacher? No way Rose? You’re a water bender, are you really?” Terezi let go of Karkat and zoomed into Rose with great interest.

The water tribe scholar just smiled at her, shook her head and pointed at Karkat. The police force captain or whatever she was, turned around so quickly that it made him flinch and step back. She had on the biggest grin that made him swear he saw fangs. It made him want to turn and run. He almost did it too but as soon as he turned around a metal wire wrapped around him and pulled him backwards towards the girl. Once he was in range she retracted the wire and put an arm over his shoulders.

“The Karkat ‘I hate taking bending lessons’ Vantas is THE Avatar!?” her cackle was laced with excitement that was easily heard. Her men for some reason were beginning to feel uneasy.

“Am I going to hear this with every person we meet? Your reaction was almost exactly the same as Vriska’s.”

Terezi’s grin immediately disappeared. All of her men flinched, “C-captian! We shall wait back at the ship for you!”

Within seconds her men scattered away back to the port.

“Wait Vriska? You saying you met her before getting here?” Dave asked for Terezi who had hostility in her eyes.

“More like she attacked us-”

“When? Where? What day did you arrive?” Terezi grabbed Karkat’s collar and interrogated him.

“Wha- we arrived two-three days ago. She attacked us about two weeks before we got here though, Karkat quickly answered with his arms put up in defense.

“Tch long gone by now,” Terezi let go of him and looked down to the side in disappointment.

“What’s your beef with her anyways? She had the same look on her face when I said your name,” the Avatar looked at her with question as the young captain clenched her fists.

“A lot . . . has happened during the past six years . . .”

“Perhaps it’s better to not pry,” Rose advised in a whisper, “She will most likely tell you when she’s ready. It’s not like you want to tell everyone why you missed the last banquet right?”

Karkat looked down with his eyes furrowed slightly and nodded.

“Hey want to see Karkat’s progress in his fire bending?” Dirk immediately spoke up to break the tension.

Terezi’s mood made a complete 180 and her grin returned, “Yes! Show me your sick fires Mr. Avatar! Oh I want to see if you got any better at water bending too! Oh oh Rose we have to have another match as well!”

“Then put your order in so Dave and I can get started on it and then you can go to the back with Karkat and Rose to show off,” Dirk suggested.

“Awesome so I need 10 of the basic set, 15 of the advanced set and 5 of the custom benders set.”

“Wow you weren’t kidding when you said you had a big order. That’s going to take a while.”

“That’s why I come to you guys. The Striders are the best for this kind of job! And you’re a lot faster than everyone else.”

“You flatter us Captain Pyrope. Want us to do maintenance on your cane as well?” Dave offered.

“Yes even better!” Terezi turned around and made a comical frown in wonder, “Hey where’d all my men go?”

“They scattered like it was going to be the apocalypse back to their ship,” Karkat explained referring to her sudden change in mood once Vriska was brought up.

“Huh I guess they didn’t want to wait. Oh well I’m going to be here all week so I’ll just bring it in tomorrow! Let’s go water tribe people and show me your moves. Have fun guys you’ll get your hefty payment once it’s finished as usual,” Terezi called out to the Striders as she pushed Rose and Karkat towards the back.

“Leave it to us,” Dirk rolled his shoulders before heading in, “Let’s go little bro. Let’s see if we can finish this in record time. Bet I can make more sets than you can.”

“Oh you’re on,” Dave accepted the challenge and walked in.

*****************************************************

“So what shall we start with? Karkat showing what he has learned so far or our little duel?” Rose asked once they reached the back field.

“Hmmm I think I want to start with the duel. I haven’t found a really good opponent in so long and I could use the exercise,” Terezi revealed an excited grin.

“Very well then. Karkat be sure to watch, you could learn a thing or two from this match,” Rose gave him a smile that looked more like a smirk as she walked towards the center of the field. Karkat looked back at her with a scowl and a glare when he sat down.

“Hehe yes watch and learn the masters young Avatar,” Terezi patted his head and then took her spot across from Rose.

“So any rules you wish to place on this match at all oh fearless captain?” Rose asked while taking her stance.

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that?” Terezi thought a bit and then stomped on the ground. All around the field a small indent in the earth formed a large rectangle around the girls, “There an arena match. Anyone who takes a step outside loses alright?”

“Sounds fair enough.”

“Oh wait a sec,” Terezi ran over to Karkat and dropped her spectacles onto his lap, “Hold onto these for me and oh be the ref too.”

“What? Don’t you need these to see?” Karkat asked the earth bender captain.

“I never wear them when I fight don’t you remember?” Terezi smiled with fang like characteristics. Karkat blinked and an image of a younger Terezi appeared in front of him wearing the exact same smile. Blinking again the image disappeared and the earth bender went back to her position across from Rose.

“Alright ready when you are,” Terezi posed and beckoned the water bender with her hand.

“I’ll take that as a sign to go first,” Rose waved her hands and the water bin beside Karkat was immediately drained. The body of water enveloped Rose before twisting her up and letting he sit atop of the water. With a flick of her wrist water from the bottom of the mass shot out and headed straight for the earth bender.

The calm captain with her constant smile appeared to easily evade the water bullets and was steadily approaching the mass of water. Once the tirade of water stopped flying at her, Terezi shot out one of the wires on her right arm towards the water as if to pop the bubble. It didn’t pop the bubble, instead it just sunk in then sharply turned upwards to try to hit Rose. The large mass of water suddenly froze making the wire stop in its tracks and making Terezi stuck as well since the wire was stuck onto her armour. Rose took this chance and turned a bit of the ice into water. She jumped off the large mound of ice and dashed towards Terezi with two water whips floating by her sides.

Terezi stomped and created a couple of earth walls Rose had to maneuver around and with the distraction Terezi took off the piece of armour with the wire connected to it and ran to the side effectively dodging Rose’s attack right when the water bender made it past the walls. With another stomp and forward movement of her arms two large rocks flew towards the water bender.  Rose swiftly dodged the first rock and put her arms together meshing the two water whips together before turning them both into one piece of ice in a lance like shape. The second rock flew towards the ice lance and shattered to pieces once it hit the tip.

“Genius Lalonde strikes again. What a move! You never cease to surprise me,” Terezi commented as she shot out her second wire at her.

The ice lance turned back into water and absorbed the wire slowing down the strike and within the water Rose grabbed the end of the wire, “You have been getting a lot better as well Captain Terezi.”

Terezi let out a laugh and Rose couldn’t help but let out a smile of enjoyment. Rose let go of the wire and the two dashed towards each other. The wire retracted quickly and shot out again and headed towards Rose like a whip. Rose lashed out her water whip at the same time. The wire and mass of water barely touched each other before flowing past and hitting the opponent in the stomach and making them both fly backwards. Terezi managed to step down and form some earth to grab around her legs to make her stop just before the arena line while Rose created a wall of ice behind her where she stepped on and then landed gracefully right before the arena line on the other side of the field.

The water bender let out a breath of relief and put her hand at her stomach, “Whew quite some strength you have there.”

“I can say the same to you,” Terezi responded in a position the same as Rose with her hand over her stomach.

“Karkat you’ll catch flies that way. Close your mouth,” Rose stated without even looking at the boy. The Avatar immediately shut his mouth finally realizing that he had been gaping in awe. This battle was just as intense as the match Rose had with Vriska and both again were equal. Even though he would never admit it, he had thought Rose was the strongest bender out of their whole group. The last two matches had changed his mind and most likely throughout his travels he may see stronger benders in their group.

Terezi took the next attack. A pillar of earth shot up right beneath Rose and shot up high in the sky leaving the water bender isolated in the air. She made a similar pillar appear in front of her but it was a lot shorter. With a couple of kicks at the pillar 5 earth discs formed and flew towards the water bender. The giant ice mass that was still lying on the field turned into water, releasing Terezi’s trapped wire that she had abandoned before, and flew towards Rose. It then formed into a curved ice ramp heading towards the ground. Rose quickly hopped onto it and skated down the ramp just as the earth discs hit the top of the earth pillar she was just on. Terezi let out a whistle before creating more pillars around her and continuing the onslaught of earth discs.

Rose just casually skated down the ramp as the discs flew past her. Somehow she was able to control her speed slowing down when a disc flew in front of her and speeding up when a disc flew behind her. Terezi soon caught on and directed a few disc at the ice ramp in front of Rose breaking her path and hoping to make the girl fall. But of course the girl was not shocked or distressed. She quickly took action and turned her ice ramp into a water mass below her which gently caught her fall and she bounced off the bubble like water before landing on the ground. The water blob then formed into ice pillars and she countered the earth discs with her own ice ones. The battle continued with these pucks flying through the air either smashing into each other or barely missing each other and heading towards their true target.

The two benders sidestepped or stepped backwards to avoid the flying discs and moved in a strange rhythm like a dance. As the two got farther apart the discs flew faster. It appeared that Rose would soon run out of water and Terezi could gain the upper hand but Karkat knew that Rose would easily create a distraction so that she could gather up the scattered ice fragments and the flying disc duel could start again or some other intricate type of bending would be played out. Just when Rose was at the end of her water stock the Avatar prepared himself to see the next set of breath taking bending but instead the two girls took a step backwards at the same time and stopped. The both looked down which made Karkat look to where they were looking.

Both of them had stepped into the indent Terezi had made earlier.

“Man! I was having so much fun I completely forgot about the arena!” Terezi laughed as she plopped down onto the ground in self disappointment but laughed anyways.

“Unfortunately I had the same thoughts as well,” Rose fixed a part of her hair that came loose and stood relaxingly, “It would seem to be another draw.”

“Hehe that was intense as usual!” Terezi jumped up, “Your scholarly look hides the master bender underneath.”

“Is that to be taken as a compliment or an insult?” Rose smirked.

Karkat looked around as they chatted. The whole back field looked like a mess with protruding earth formations and ice shards scattered everywhere.

“So you learn anything Karkat?” Terezi asked as she snapped back on the armour she previously took off and recoiled the wire before she attempted to push the earth back to the way it was. Rose was also picking up the ice shards and returning the water back to the bin beside him.

“Yeah you two are insane. Don’t you have anything better to do than practice bending all day?” Karkat thought to himself. Of course his days had consisted of going to school and fishing. On rare occasions Feferi and Rose would take him out to practice bending when they had the time.

“We have a gift why not practice and perfect it? Bending is dwindling now you know,” Terezi gave him a puzzled look, “I know you’re not of fan of school like situations but it never hurts to practice by yourself to get better. It can help you out in a lot of situations.”

“You sound like Feferi.”

“Then she’s right. Princess isn’t just saying it cause it’s part of her job,” within a few seconds the two benders finished clearing the field and it looked as if they had never had a match in the first place, “Now it’s your turn to show off your moves!”

“Er fuck,” Karkat began to have second thoughts. After seeing such an amazing display of bending, his own performance would be like child’s play to them. He wondered if he should have volunteered to go first.

“Do you have cold feet now Karkat?” Rose sat down beside him.

“Of course not!” Karkat stood up in fury before realizing he just caught the bait. Taunting him always seemed to work.

“I just wanna see come on!!” Terezi took her glasses from Karkat and flashed him a wide somewhat pleading smile.

“It’s not all that great. Just the basics and shit.”

“Good enough! It’s cool already that you can bend more than one element so why not show off?” Terezi shoved him up front as she sat down with Rose and put on her glasses. She sat there with anticipation.

He stood there and blinked at the two not knowing what to do.

“Why don’t you start with a few water moves Karkat. Pretend we’re not here,” Rose suggested.

Karkat inhaled and exhaled before taking a stream of water from the water bin and practicing moves with it. While watching Terezi got an idea and stood up. She made a few movements without Karkat noticing so when two human like figures made from earth crawled up beside him it made him cry out and drop his water. Rose and Terezi giggled at him.

“Just a few practice dummies for you to work with. Think of them as opponents and no need to hold back okay? I’ll control them from here,” with some more movements the stone people began to walk towards Karkat and one of them even threw a punch at him.

Karkat quickly dodged and rose his water back up from the ground. The next couple of moments consisted of him dodging the earth attacks and slicing off earth limbs with his stream of water. The earth limbs quickly connected back together so he was pretty much repeating his movements over and over again. For some reason he began to get annoyed like the earth figures were taunting him for no apparent reason. Though it was just in his head it pissed him off and he dropped the water stream again. In a new stance he brought his right fist to the side of his waist while facing one of the figures with his left side.

With a simple twist of the body and bringing his right fist toward the head of the figure, a burst of flame flew out from his punch and set the head on fire. The second figure stopped it’s movements from Terezi looking on with glee and Karkat took the chance to do a reverse roundhouse kick right in front of it. Flames flew from his foot and quickly set the second one on fire and within a matter of seconds the two earth figures turned into mounds of ash on the field.

“That . . . was awesome!” Terezi cried and leapt over to Karkat, “Sure they were simple moves but wow you’re THE Avatar! This is so cool! Hey hey Rose what are the chances of me being able to recruit him to my group once he’s finished his lessons?”

“Well I think we should take things one step at a time. It depends on how long it takes him to master all the elements and so far he’s already made a bet with his father saying that he would at least get the basics of all four elements by the end of this year,” Rose explained as Terezi practically ran circles around the boy.

“Karkat you had better master all of those elements soon so you can join me and it will be loads of fun together hunting down and persecuting the world’s biggest criminals!”

“He of course has many other Avatar duties that he must fulfill. Perhaps he could join you on your quest of justice in his free time.”

“Yeah that reminds me what the hell do you even do?” Karkat asked, “What are you some head of some police force? Why are you travelling? Shouldn’t you just be stationed in one fucking town or something?”

“Just being city police is boring. I got permission to have my own special troop to go across the nation to hunt down the biggest of the unlawful criminals out there. The Spider Lilies being an example.”

“I thought you were more into that legislator or lawyer stuff and persecuting criminals in court,” Karkat tried to reach back into his old memories.

“I did but I found that it’s more fun to capture the criminals myself! And thanks to my connections I can be a legislator too sometimes. You’ve missed out on a lot Karkat! If you went to the last banquet you would have known!”

“Yeah well . . . things happened.”

Terezi looked at his face and saw the change in mood, “We need to have a nice long talk to catch up later okay?”

“. . . Alright sounds good.”

“Hehe you smiled!” Terezi chuckled and Karkat instantly frowned.

“You ladies done back here? We’re going into town to eat if you guys want!” Dave called out from the window of the smith.

“Oh! I’ll treat! Let’s go you two!” Terezi grabbed the hands of the two water benders and headed to the front. As they ran around the house, Karkat took a peek inside past Dave. Inside hanging on the wall was a metal uniform similar to Terezi’s beside it was another one that looked unfinished. So not only were they sword smiths but they were armour makers too? Or perhaps metal smiths would suit them better. Nah that sounds stupid.

“Hey Captain you’re going to scare the citizens in that get up,” Dirk stated at the door as he hung up an apron and tossed his gloves onto a table nearby.

“Oh guess I should change first,” Terezi looked down at her earth nation metal bender enforcer outfit, “I’ll meet you right at the town gates!”

Karkat watched her run back to the port and didn’t realize Dave had crept up beside him.

“Nice moves out there.”

“JESUS FUCK!” Karkat cried in surprise and jumped back, “DON’T DO THAT EVER AGAIN.”

Dave just smirked at him and walked ahead, “Last one there has to pay.”

“Terezi just said she’d treat asshole,” though he said that he dashed ahead anyways. Dave saw him run past him and ran after him.

“Ah young love,” Dirk said in a low voice so only Rose could hear that brought an amused smile to her lips.


	9. Witch of the Mountain

Terezi had changed out of her armor but she still stuck out like a sore thumb with her earth nation casual wear. A part of Karkat felt that he should have worn his water nation outfit to somewhat even things out, but both would equally stand out no matter what. They went to a family restaurant and found Jake there. Dirk had contacted him earlier to get them a table. The food was good, insults were thrown, laughs were shared and old stories were told. Rose told of Karkat’s reluctance to learn about bending in the past. Dirk told of Dave’s past embarrassing moments while Terezi and Jake told of their adventures and travels.

Though it was loud and rowdy Karkat had fun. He actually felt like listening to all the stories, except for the ones about him, and this time wanted to remember all of them clearly. He didn’t want to forget about everyone like he did before. After dinner the group walked back to the sword smith and Terezi asked for a gun demonstration from Jake. The adventurer happily complied and hit all the targets that Terezi had made for him spot on. Everyone clapped at his wonderful marksmanship and that was when he suggested Dirk and Dave to have a match to show off their sword skills. Dave flat out refused while Dirk pulled him out into the field anyways.

“Come on baby bro at least let me know if you’ve gotten better or not,” Dirk taunted.

Dave just frowned at his brother and held his sword ready. Karkat didn’t even see the first step. Next thing he knew the two were right in front of each other with their swords clashed and were pushing against each other. Dirk had a smirk on his face while Dave had his brows slightly furrowed in concentration. After the slight struggle the Striders jumped back for room before lunging at each other once more. It was a very fast paced battle. Even though Karkat could only catch about half their movements, he could tell that even a professional bender would have trouble against either of these swordsmen. And this was just a battle of swords. If they used their bending as well they could perhaps be undefeatable. This journey was definitely opening his eyes to the world and complete difference in strength in others.

A swipe at the younger Strider’s head caused him to curse under his breath before changing tactics. The attacks became a bit more erratic and the sound of swords clashing became more frequent. Karkat couldn’t believe it but they were actually moving faster than before. The amazement was soon cut short when a sword was seen flying straight up into the air and Dave fell backwards onto the ground. Dirk caught the sword as it fell and walked over to his brother. With an amused smile he put both swords into the ground and held his hand out to Dave. The boy groaned before sitting up and grabbing the hand.

“That was great! That battle was definitely much longer than the last time I visited. You’re getting better Dave,” Terezi complimented, “You Striders are just so cool.”

“If getting your ass handed to you is cool then I question your definition for the rest of your vocabulary,” Karkat scoffed.

“Hey Avatar you master fire yet?” Dave asked as he walked back to the group with his sword.

“Shut up. Not like I can learn anything right with your craptacular teaching.”

“You’re just not listening.”

“What’s there to listen to!?”

“Here we go,” Dirk stated with a short sigh.

“Now boys settle down. Though this could be worked out with a scuffle, both of you have already expended your energy for the night,” Jake attempted to cease the argument.

“Jake not everything can be solved with a fight,” Dirk shook his head.

“Why not? It seemed to work the other day. The adrenaline rush and exhaustion at the end helps you realize you were both acting like foolish blokes.”

“No, not really. They were both still idiots before and after their stupid fight.”

“Hey!” Dave and Karkat both shouted at the older Strider at the same time before glaring at each other.

Terezi laughed, “This is going to be a fun week.”

****************************************************************************************************

The next couple of days consisted of Karkat practicing the basics of fire bending as expected, Terezi bothering him at first before creating targets, Rose critiquing, and Dave every now and then correcting his stances in awkward and sexually implied ways to bother him and sometimes actually teaching him how to control his breathing to help with his bending. Jake had left sometime in the week for work letting Dirk concentrate on his own. It was a very different experience for Karkat. It wasn’t routine like back in the north pole and the ship. Rose gave him a two hour lesson every second day but it was tolerable and Karkat was actually learning.

About five days into Terezi’s vacation, Rose had decided to take the young captain out into the town to have some sort of girl hang out. Half the day had passed and Dave was taking a break from work to check on Karkat. After a few corrections the two sat on the side and Karkat took a break for a drink.

“Wow I’m sort of amazed how damn much you suck. I mean wow. But I guess . . . you’re kind of getting it? You’ll get better . . . Probably . . . I think . . .”

Karkat began to get annoyed by his teacher’s banter so he quickly water bended the water in his cup to splash the fire bending teacher before quickly absconding into the forest.

 _Didn’t have to be a dick about it. If it’s so easy then why doesn’t he show me how it should be done instead of telling me I’m doing it wrong all the time?_ Karkat thought to himself as he traversed his new haven.

The forest gave off an atmosphere opposite to the icy coves and cliffs that he used to retreat to back in the north pole. Instead of the sound of a cold hollow wind, here small chirps from birds along with a light warm breeze replaced it. It was comforting and a lot more peaceful. The only unsettling thing about the forest was the field of bright red flowers in which he found himself in front of again. He frowned at the unnaturally coloured flowers. Sure he’s seen red roses and such before but never as bright as these. It was as if someone died here and the flowers absorbed the blood to create such a colour. Karkat shuddered at the thought and turned to leave and found Terezi standing right before him and a little close with a grin on her face.

With a cry he jumped back and fell onto a few of the flowers. Terezi laughed at first but gave him a disappointed look afterwards.

“That’s no good Karkat. If you can’t even tell when someone walks up behind you then the enemy would have a big advantage over you,” she held out her hand toward shim to help him up and he took it.

“Well I’m not the one going around chasing criminals. Not like I have any enemies,” he stated after dusting himself off. Well maybe except Vriska but he wouldn’t say that in front of Terezi. She might have said something about Vriska being the enemy of everyone.

“What you think you can be friends with everybody? I’m surprised you haven’t made any enemies with that attitude of yours,” Terezi’s smile came back as he rolled his eyes, “You never know. You just might make some along your journey.

 _Already did._ “What could I do? I’d be too busy trying to learn the rest of the elements.”

“You never know,” Terezi repeated before walking through the red flower field, careful not to step on any. Once she reached the middle she hopped onto the slanted and seemingly cut in half rock and sat down. She beckoned him over, “Try not stepping on the flowers if you can!”

“Why should I?”

“Think of it as honing your senses. Taking careful steps to not let the enemy know where you are,” she turned so that her back was facing him, “Try to surprise me.”

“But you know I’m coming.”

“I won’t know how fast you’re approaching though. Just try and sneak up on me at a pace I can’t predict. By the way, if you step on a flower I can immediately tell where you are.”

With furrowed brows, Karkat took his first step. About a third of the way there he stepped on one and it made a soft snapping sound under his foot. He cursed as he heard Terezi let out a small giggle. He slowed his pace and carefully traversed through the strange flowery maze. A couple minutes later he arrived at the center and sat on the other rock across from Terezi. The young captain shook her head at him.

“Stepped on one flower, the stem of two, half on five and carelessly arrived at the rock. I could tell where you were the whole time. If you took a sneaking class you would fail on the spot.”

“Sorry I’ve already been involuntarily signed p for way too many fucking classes. The option of sneaking 101 has no room on my schedule for the next fucking year.”

“Then reserve it for next year or take it on the side or outside of school. Find yourself a nice sexy tutor to help you,” Terezi gave him an eyebrow wiggle.

“That kind of tutor would be hard as fuck to find. Harder than the class.”

“You just haven’t been looking hard enough.”

“Okay first of all sexy and tutor just doesn’t go together.”

“Hey that’s an insult to all the sexy tutors all around you,” she gave him a playful shove, “What I can’t be a sexy tutor for you?”

“Not to me. That would be just too fucking weird. You’re my friend,”

“Hehe then how about Dave?”

“Disgusting. He’s too stupid to be a tutor in the first place.”

Terezi’s grin grew from the sudden response, “But you have been learning. How about his sexy factor?”

“Where the fuck are we going with this.”

“Oh nowhere. You should lighten up and have fun Karkat,” Terezi teased. She picked a flower sitting near her and examined it. Without looking at Karkat she spoke again, “Since I’m leaving in two days I thought I’d let you in on what happened between me and Vriska.”

Karkat went silent and noticed the mood change even though the smile she had on was still there, “I guess I’ll tell you why I missed the last banquet too.”

“Only if you want to,” she twirled the flower before placing it down and pulling her legs up and hugging them, “As you know, Vriska and I were pretty close. At one point we were even nicknamed as the scourge sisters. Together we had planned to join the forces in Republic City when we got older to hunt down criminals and bring out justice together. We were an unstoppable team. Two years before the banquet we had joined a cadet troupe. It was kind of like an internship of some sort. It was fun. We trained and became much more skilled all the while learning new things together.”

Terezi smile grew smaller until she sighed and put on a frown, “A year in, Vriska had somehow broken into the criminal info vault. She told me she was tired of just being a lackey so she wanted us to go and catch a real criminal ourselves to show everyone that we were not meant for menial tasks. But instead of finding a good bounty for us, she found info on her mother instead. Mindfang the most wanted pirate in all the seas. Once she found out she wanted to leave and asked me to go with her to search for her mom. Her plan was to become a pirate to find a pirate. She wanted to know why her mother abandoned her.”

“But if she had joined you instead and created what you have now then it would have been pretty much the same thing. Maybe easier? Why would she fucking turn from chasing criminals to becoming one!?” Karkat inputted.

“That’s what I told her but her argument was that a pirate as great as her mom would easily avoid a lawful troupe like ours. So the only way to meet or find a pirate is to be one. I tried to convince her otherwise but she was dead set on her goal. I couldn’t stop her and she just left,” Terezi picked up the flower again and began picking at it slowly tearing at the large petals, “We kept in contact for a few months afterwards. I just wanted to check on her and I constantly reminded her that she could come back. I couldn’t believe though, after two months she had actually found herself a crew and a ship and then began to travel the seas to find her mother all the while robbing other ships and creating a name for them. It was getting harder and harder for her to turn back. A few weeks before the banquet I told her I wanted to meet up for old times’ sake, just the two of us.”

Karkat saw her pause and scrunch up the rest of the flower before tossing it to the side, “At the meet up point I brought a small group with me to arrest her. When she got there she was so mad at me. I told her that if she stopped what she was doing and turned herself in now then her punishment would be lenient because she used to be one of us. I even told her that I would help her find her mother no matter what after her punishment was over but no. She was enraged. She said something about me betraying her at one point but I can’t remember too clearly. We tried to capture her but she was too strong and knocked everyone out. That was the last time I had a serious fight with her, the only difference was that she had killing intent and I didn’t.”

Terezi held up some hair on the right side of her head revealing a burn mark where hair wouldn’t grow but was easily hidden by the rest, “I got that from being too hesitant with my attack and nearly missed a fatal hit. She used the opportunity where I was fazed to get away. I haven’t seen her since. She wasn’t at the banquet and neither were you. So from then till now I’ve been working hard to gain ranks high enough to have my own group to hunt down Vriska. She’s eluded me pretty well. I even tried to go after her mom to see if she would follow and we’d somehow meet but nothing so far.”

“So for the past two years the two of you have just been playing a stupid fucking chasing game?”

“Yeah pretty much,” Terezi scratched her head, “Well it’s not like I’ve been chasing only Vriska for the past two years. I have caught some pretty big criminals and training some good men for my group. Vriska’s not the only one on my list but she is at the top.”

“I see . . .” Karkat looked at Terezi who was looking down at the torn up red petals around her, “My mom died from cancer a few months before the banquet. I didn’t want to deal with people so I just didn’t go. I was practically an emotional mess during that time and hated everyone more than usual.”

“Sorry to hear that. You mom was nice.”

“Yeah. Sorry about what happened with Vriska. Must be hard to have your best friend turn against you.”

“In a way I turned against her too. I know she’s done some pretty bad things over the last two years but I want to make sure I capture her and not anyone else.”

“Yeah knock some sense into that crazed spider bitch. She fights like a barbarian. Using all her dirty pirate tricks. I hate to admit it but she’s a really powerful bender too.”

“Well of course. She wouldn’t be much of a challenge otherwise,” Terezi gave him a small smile and he returned it.

“So you can smile.”

“Well yeah,” he gave her an awkward look making her laugh.

“We should get back,” Terezi stood up and stretched before hopping off the rock.

“. . . You go ahead and go back first. I’ll be there in a bit,” Karkat laid down and watched the setting sky.

“Don’t be too long now. I heard you got lost here more than once,” Terezi grinned at his sigh.

“I’ll be back before dark don’t worry about it.”

“Quickly now before everyone decides to have dinner without you!” Terezi called as she walked back.

“Whatever I said quit worrying about me,” Karkat waved at her and just stared at the sky to collect his thoughts. He began to wonder how the rest of his friends were. He wasn’t in touch with most of them very often but he knew of them through everyone else.

John was of course an air nomad with Kanaya and the two, especially John, loved talking to him from time to time. Gamzee whom he used to be in contact with constantly also sudden stopped talking to him for some reason. His friend from the sister tribe in the South Pole was a little odd but it was too weird for the boy to suddenly stop talking to him. He didn’t know anyone else in the South Pole so he couldn’t really ask anyone about it. Sollux was hiding somewhere but he knew that he was doing something that involved computers as usual. Tavros he wasn’t quite sure. He found out through Rose that Jade was teaching some sort of class in the earth nation capitol, what class he wasn’t sure. Nepeta and Equius he had no clue about, same with Aradia. Feferi had mentioned something about Aradia suddenly losing contact with everyone else as well. Perhaps along his travels he could find out what was going on with everyone and report back to the Princess that would love to hear the news.

The sun was halfway through setting so he decided to head back. The forest was beginning to get dark pretty quickly so he hastened his steps.

Out of nowhere a hand clamped over his mouth and he instinctively elbowed the perpetrator in the stomach. Karkat quickly turned around and stood in a ready stance. The person before him was wearing a strange outfit he had never seen before. It was completely black with white trims and the eyes were covered by what appeared to be a masquerade mask. The perpetrator quickly recovered from the sudden elbow attack and began to water bend. He sucked the water out of the trees and grass all around him which shocked Karkat because he hadn’t learned that yet. His only choice was to counter with fire bending which he barely knew at that point. The battle wasn’t as bad as he had hoped though. He was able to dodge pretty well because he could predict his attacker’s movements. Soon he got in a kick that knocked the attacker back against a tree. He held his left fist by his head ready for a punch as his right hand grabbed the collar of the attacker.

“Who the fuck are you and why are you attacking me?”

The attacker just smirked, “We’re bringing you to the witch.”

His mind wandered back to the first day he arrived at the small fire nation island to the old woman who told him about the legend of the witch who hid people under the mountain.

“Don’t fuck with me. That’s just some stupid fake legend.”

“Or is it,” the attacker gave him a full out grin before a sharp pain came from the back of his head. Karkat staggered backwards before falling over and his world blurred. A pair of feet joined his perpetrators and he looked up to see a girl in a similar outfit but with a long black skirt. His vision soon went black and his consciousness left him with the single thought of ‘who the fuck are these people?’


	10. A Sovereign Rule

Dinner was ready and the sun had set but Karkat was nowhere to be found. Terezi and Rose had begun to worry. Dave said something about not needing to worry because the stubborn boy could just be brooding in the forest again but even Dirk felt uneasy for some reason. The four ended up heading into the forest to call out to the young Avatar. No response was given. He wasn’t at the flower field or any other spots he was found at before. He couldn’t have possibly gone deeper could he?

Terezi had enough of wandering around aimlessly in the dark and took off her shoes to see if the earth could tell her where he was. She closed her eyes and stood quietly. Unfortunately there were no signs of any other people nearby aside from them, but she did find some odd footprints somewhere. The group followed her and saw signs of battle in a small area. Slashed trees and a few burn marks were found on the ground. It looked like Karkat was attacked while he was heading back. The burns marks were cold so the battle had happened a while ago already. Terezi cursed to herself for not sensing anything. She was too preoccupied with chatting with the Striders as soon as she got back.

“But who would even attack him? Wasn’t he secluded in the North Pole all this time? No one should know who he is right?” Dave questioned.

“He may have more enemies than I thought. I was just joking around when I said that,” Terezi stated as they continued walking deeper into the forest.

Rose frowned as she thought to herself, “There shouldn’t be anyone. We’ve barely told anyone we know ourselves of Karkat’s situation.”

“Shouldn’t we call those White Lotus guards for this?” Dirk suggested, “If he’s really in trouble they should take over right.”

“Karkat wouldn’t like that. If they know he’s in danger they would never leave him alone for training. He could be lost after running away from whoever attacked him.”

“But why would fire benders attack him?” Dave wondered.

“I don’t think fire benders attacked him. I think he was the one doing fire bending,” the special ops commander pointed out, “Rose does Karkat know how to suck water out of plants or something like that yet? I know he didn’t have any water on him.”

“No he does not. We lived surrounded by water and ice so there was never any need to learn that until now.”

“That’s what I thought. He was attacked by water benders then because there were a couple of dead trees and flowers randomly at that area.”

“It’s probably best to say they aren’t tourists then,” the group continued to look with more determination. After a couple more minutes Dirk stopped Dave as he was looking towards the mountain.

“Hey remember the legend?”

“That crap about the witch?”

“Yeah remember how it turned out it was just some crazy old water bending lady who could blood bend and had a thing against fire nation citizens way back and hid them under the mountain?”

Dave looked at his brother then at the mountain in realization, “Now if I was some evil water bender and I wanted to kidnap the Avatar that is definitely a place I would go.”

“Girls I think I know where he was taken!” Dirk called out to them as the brothers began to run ahead.

The girls swiftly followed.

They soon reached the mountain side and Dirk placed a hand on the large wall of rock. After concentrating a bit he ran to the side and pushed aside some bushes where he found an entrance. The group looked at each other for a second before they all filed in.

***************************************************************************

“ _Are you sure it’s him?_ ”

A whisper stirred the boy.

“ _Yes we have been watching him for the past few days. Although he doesn’t know all the elements yet. We have confirmed he can bend water and fire even if he hasn’t mastered them yet._ ”

Karkat stayed still and tried to make sense of his surroundings.

“ _So he just began to learn the useless element._ ”

He was lying down probably on a bed. It wasn’t uncomfortable. He shifted ever so slightly so that it would go unnoticed. He wasn’t bound in any way so that meant he could get up and run freely.

“ _It’s no matter. We will talk sense into him and he will see our ways. His joining of us shall aid us greatly._ ”

Slowly he opened his eyes just a crack to see if he could scan the area. Right in front of him a person sat and stared at his face at a very close distance. It startled him making him open his eyes open wide and sit up quickly.

“He’s awake!” the masked person in front of him called out. Karkat immediately jumped up and took a ready stance for fire bending. The masked person immediately held their hands up in defense, “Whoa there. Don’t worry we’re not gonna hurt you or anything. We didn’t even tie you up or anything man.”

The Avatar kept his defensive position as more of those dark clothed people entered the room. Quickly scanning around it looked like where they entered was the only entrance and the room looked like it was made out of a cave. If only he had learned earth bending first.

“Hello Avatar. There is no need to worry,” a woman walked up near his bed and he pressed his back against the wall still holding his stance, “We only wish to speak with you.”

“Oh sure you do. Let’s knock me out and drag me away to some dark ass place. That’s not suspicious at all. I’m just some fire nation resident where the hell do you get off on calling me the Avatar,” no one should have known.

“We’ve been watching you for a little while now and we have seen you bend more than one element.”

“Yeah that’s definitely helping you get me to trust you sick as fuck stalkers. Your outfits don’t exactly scream safe outstanding citizens either.”

The woman let out a light chuckle. The one who had sat in the chair staring at him got up and let the woman sit down, “Let me explain from the beginning and introduce ourselves. We are the Sovereignty.”

“That’s all I need to hear. You guys are a fucking cult aren’t you? I want no part in this so fuck off and let me go before I have to force my way out,” Karkat pulled his arm back ready for a fire punch and the rest of the people in the room held their hands up in defense and stepped back.

“Please just hear us out first at least before you make your decision,” the woman calmly attempted to reason with him, “I can have them leave the room if you’d like as well.”

“But M’Lady-” one of her grunts spoke out but she stopped him and then shooed the rest out of the room. They reluctantly obeyed.

“Is that better?”

Karkat lowered his stance and slowly sat back down onto the bed but made sure to stay on guard, “You know decent people would have just walked up and asked for a chat instead of kidnapping.”

“I apologize for the barbaric actions we had to take but it was the only way. We don’t want other people hearing that you’re the Avatar. You’re keeping that a secret for now right? If we had suddenly gone up to you knowing that you were the Avatar you would have found us suspicious anyways. Plus you look the type to not wait for an explanation before resorting to violent methods like you almost did just now.”

“Just make your explanation quick. The longer you keep dodging things the more you’re pissing me off. Don’t tell me you’re the witch of the mountain.”

“Witch of the mountain,” a small smile appeared on her face when she realized, “Oh no. I have nothing to do with that old folk tale. It was just a coincidence.”

Karkat gave her an unbelieving glare.

“Well anyways onto the point. I said that we are the Sovereignty. A group of people who wish to put the right to this world. We have two objectives and once we accomplish them the world will be as it should be.”

The Avatar was beginning to feel uneasy. He could practically tell where this was going, “And what are these two objectives?”

“I’ll tell you the second one first. It is to rekindle this world’s connection with the spirit world. Bending is dwindling. Our only connection to the spirit world is our bending and if that disappears then we would be lost from the spirits forever and our world would fall to ruin. So we are also looking for children as well with potential to help them become masters of their elements.”

“And what’s the first objective?”

“To rid the world of fire benders,” her smile grew a fraction, “You see, fire is the only unnatural element in this world. There is no reason for us to have it. It only causes destruction. It gives us no connection with the spirit world either. If there were no fire benders then the war where the fire nation almost took over wouldn’t have happened. We won’t kill them of course. We’ll only take their powers. You see I have a special skill unlike the others. I can take bending away from those not worthy and that is how I will eradicate the dangerous fire benders.”

“You’re insane,” Karkat stood up again and hopped off of the bed, “I’ve heard enough I’m out of here.”

“No please understand Avatar. You would be of great assist to us,” the woman stood up in front of him, “Don’t you see? The world is collapsing. Those cursed foreigners are breaking our connection with the spirit world as well and with fire benders around there is bound to be more wars in the future. We are trying to make the world a better place.”

He took a step back when she stepped forward, “Are you saying you should get rid of the foreigners too?”

“We will only try to halt their advances in the technology that is destroying our world but if they resist that is what we may have to resort to. It is only a small sacrifice we would have to make to bring the world back to what it should be.”

“Fire is just as needed as the other elements. Getting rid of it would upset the balance are you nuts? Fire Nation people aren’t the only ones that like to take over the world. There just happens to be a bad apple from time to time in each nation. And the foreigners aren’t doing anything wrong. We’re just adapting together in our lifestyles and there’s nothing wrong with that!” Karkat countered.

“I think you should stay young Avatar. You are still inexperienced, too naïve, the world is not as simple as you believe. It will take work but we will fix this world. There is no need for you to learn that dangerous element either. We will help you understand,” she reached out a hand towards him and he smacked it away.

“Fuck that you psychopath! Don’t touch me!”

“We’ve already begun our purge of the fire benders. We rid of them from this island and a few others in the past year. We are making the world a better place.”

Karkat stepped back and leaned against the wall. This lady was definitely insane. She stayed calm with him and continued to smile which just creeped him out even more.

“My Lady!” a member of her group entered the room in a hurry, “We have been found! There are four attacking us. Two are powerful benders and the other two are very experienced swordsmen!”

A figure flew into the informant and knocked him into the room. Dave walked in with his sword in his hand gripped tight. He wasn’t calm as Karkat expected him to be. The boy looked angry as he immediately ran in and swung at the woman.

“GIVE IT BACK!” Dave shouted.

“Oh my you must have been one of the residents we swept from our visit a year ago,” the woman chuckled as she easily dodged. Karkat blinked in confusion before the wall behind him suddenly disappeared. Terezi was there instead to catch him.

“Dave! I got him! Time to go!”

“No! Not until she returns what she stole!” Dave swung furiously at her.

The woman giggled as she continued to dodge and began to water bend to halt his sword, “Child I have already told you that you have no need for it. Look how well you already fight without it. It would just cause more destruction if you had it.”

“SHUT UP AND RETURN IT!”

The woman just shook her head.

“Dave! My men are on their way right now! See if you can capture her!”

“Oh now that won’t do. I still have so much I need to do,” the woman looked at Karkat, “Unfortunately it appears that I must go now and leave you behind but I hope you will think over what I have said. We will come back for you later and have you join us.”

The ground suddenly opened under her and she fell through before the earth quickly moved back closing the hole. Dave stabbed at the area with his sword just as it closed. Terezi dashed over and tried to reopen it but the hole was already completely gone.

“Dammit her group is full of earth and water benders. I’ll go and see if I can get her,” Terezi ran towards the tunnel she had created into the room and left. Karkat stood there looking at the distraught and frustrated boy who held onto the handle of his blade with rage.

“Dave,” Karkat slowly approached him and the boy appeared to relax a little. Karkat decided to ask the question that had been on his mind for a while now. He wanted to know the reason why he hadn’t seen Dave bend fire at all since his arrival, why the boy wouldn’t show him an example when asked, why the boy desperately fought against that woman. He had expected his character to be quite the show off yet he had never him create any flames before. The fire nation boy appeared to expect the question and waited, “Dave is your fire bending gone?”

“Yeah,” he answered casually as he pulled his sword out of the ground and sheathed it, “That woman, the second in command of the Sovereignty, Raine. She took my bending away last year. She took it away from all the fire benders from this island.”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Avatar: The Last Breath Player](https://archiveofourown.org/works/382764) by [stencilSparkler](https://archiveofourown.org/users/stencilSparkler/pseuds/stencilSparkler)




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